A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems/The Flower Market
THE FLOWER MARKET
In the Royal City spring is almost over:
Tinkle, tinkle — the coaches and horsemen pass.
We tell each other "This is the peony season":
And follow with the crowd that goes to the Flower Market.
"Cheap and dear — no uniform price:
The cost of the plant depends on the number of blossoms.
For the fine flower, — a hundred pieces of damask:
For the cheap flower, — five bits of silk.
Above is spread an awning to protect them:
Around is woven a wattle-fence to screen them.
If you sprinkle water and cover the roots with mud,
When they are transplanted, they will not lose their beauty."
Each household thoughtlessly follows the custom,
Man by man, no one realizing.
There happened to be an old farm labourer
Who came by chance that way.
He bowed his head and sighed a deep sigh:
But this sigh nobody understood.
He was thinking, "A cluster of deep-red flowers
Would pay the taxes of ten poor houses."