A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems/On being Sixty
ON BEING SIXTY
Addressed to Liu Mēng-tē, who had asked for a poem. He was the same age as Po Chü-i.
Between thirty and forty, one is distracted by the Five Lusts;
Between seventy and eighty, one is a prey to a hundred diseases.
But from fifty to sixty one is free from all ills;
Calm and still — the heart enjoys rest.
I have put behind me Love and Greed; I have done with Profit and Fame;
I am still short of illness and decay and far from decrepit age.
Strength of limb I still possess to seek the rivers and hills;
Still my heart has spirit enough to listen to flutes and strings.
At leisure I open new wine and taste several cups;
Drunken I recall old poems and sing a whole volume.
Mēng-tē has asked for a poem and herewith I exhort him
Not to complain of three-score, "the time of obedient ears."[1]
- ↑ Confucius said that it was not till sixty that "his ears obeyed him." This age was therefore called "the time of obedient ears."