Tu Fu
People note your case with the whites of their eyes.There's nobody purer, there's nobody poorer.. . . Read in the records, from earliest times,How hard it is to be a great artist.
(88)
A LETTER TO CENSOR HAN
I am sad. My thoughts are in Yo-chou.I would hurry there—but I am sick in bed.. . . Beauty would be facing me across the autumn waters.Oh, to wash my feet in Lake Tung-t'ing and see at its eight cornersWildgeese flying high, sun and moon both white,Green maples changing to red in the frosty sky,Angels bound for the Capital of Heaven, near the North Star,Riding, some of them phœnixes, and others unicorns,With banners of hibiscus and with melodies of mist,Their shadows dancing upside-down in the southern rivers,Till the Queen of the Stars, drowsy with her nectar,Would forget the winged men on either side of her!. . . From the Wizard of the Red Pine this word has come for me:That after his earlier follower he has now a new discipleWho, formerly at the capital as Emperor Liu's adviser,In spite of great successes, never could be happy.. . . What are a country's rise and fall?Can flesh-pots be as fragrant as mountain fruit? . . .
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