Poetry Codex

Chinese & Japanese

Po Chü-i

772–846

Po Chü-i (Bai Juyi, 772–846; also called Lo-t’ien) was one of the great poets of the T’ang dynasty. Born in Shansi and raised in Honan, he passed the examinations in 800, served at court as a scholar of the Han-lin Academy and a censor, and was banished in 815 to Chiang-chou (Hsün-yang) on the Yangtze. Later he governed Hangchow and Soochow and ended his life in retirement at Lo-yang.

He wrote in a deliberately plain style, said to have been tested on an old peasant woman, and he used it for satires on injustice and for quiet poems on illness, idleness, friendship, wine, old age and the death of a small daughter. His close friend was the poet Yüan Chēn. His poetry was admired in Japan during his lifetime. Arthur Waley’s versions, from A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918) and More Translations from the Chinese (1919), are presented here in Waley’s spelling of the poet’s name.

Poems (141)

  1. An Early Levée
  2. Being on Duty All Night in the Palace and Dreaming of the Hsien-yu Temple
  3. Passing T’ien-mēn Street in Ch’ang-an and Seeing a Distant View of Chung-nan Mountain
  4. The Letter
  5. Rejoicing at the Arrival of Ch’ēn Hsiung
  6. Golden Bells
  7. Remembering Golden Bells
  8. Illness
  9. The Dragon of the Black Pool
  10. The Grain Tribute
  11. The People of Tao-chou
  12. The Old Harp
  13. The Harper of Chao
  14. The Flower Market
  15. The Prisoner
  16. The Chancellor’s Gravel-Drive
  17. The Man Who Dreamed of Fairies
  18. Magic
  19. The Two Red Towers
  20. The Charcoal-Seller
  21. The Politician
  22. The Old Man with the Broken Arm
  23. Kept Waiting in the Boat at Chiu-k’ou Ten Days by an Adverse Wind
  24. On Board Ship: Reading Yüan Chēn’s Poems
  25. Arriving at Hsün-yang
  26. Madly Singing in the Mountains
  27. Releasing a Migrant “Yen” (Wild Goose)
  28. To a Portrait Painter Who Desired Him to Sit
  29. Separation
  30. Having Climbed to the Topmost Peak of the Incense-Burner Mountain
  31. Eating Bamboo-Shoots
  32. The Red Cockatoo
  33. After Lunch
  34. Alarm at First Entering the Yang-tze Gorges
  35. On Being Removed from Hsün-yang and Sent to Chung-chou
  36. Planting Flowers on the Eastern Embankment
  37. Children
  38. Pruning Trees
  39. Being Visited by a Friend During Illness
  40. On the Way to Hangchow: Anchored on the River at Night
  41. Stopping the Night at Jung-yang
  42. The Silver Spoon
  43. The Hat Given to the Poet by Li Chien
  44. The Big Rug
  45. After Getting Drunk, Becoming Sober in the Night
  46. Realizing the Futility of Life
  47. Rising Late and Playing with A-ts’ui, Aged Two
  48. On a Box Containing His Own Works
  49. On Being Sixty
  50. Climbing the Terrace of Kuan-yin and Looking at the City
  51. Climbing the Ling Ying Terrace and Looking North
  52. Going to the Mountains with a Little Dancing Girl, Aged Fifteen
  53. Dreaming of Yüan Chēn
  54. A Dream of Mountaineering
  55. Ease
  56. On Hearing Someone Sing a Poem by Yüan Chēn
  57. Lao-tzŭ
  58. Chuang-tzŭ, the Monist
  59. Taoism and Buddhism
  60. Last Poem
  61. After Passing the Examination
  62. Escorting Candidates to the Examination Hall
  63. In Early Summer Lodging in a Temple to Enjoy the Moonlight
  64. Sick Leave
  65. Watching the Reapers
  66. Going Alone to Spend a Night at the Hsien-yu Temple
  67. Planting Bamboos
  68. To Li Chien
  69. At the End of Spring
  70. The Poem on the Wall
  71. Chu Ch‘ēn Village
  72. Fishing in the Wei River
  73. Lazy Man’s Song
  74. Illness and Idleness
  75. Winter Night
  76. The Chrysanthemums in the Eastern Garden
  77. Poems in Depression, at Wei Village
  78. To His Brother Hsing-chien, Who Was Serving in Tung-ch‘uan
  79. Starting Early from the Ch‘u-ch‘ēng Inn
  80. Rain
  81. The Beginning of Summer
  82. Visiting the Hsi-lin Temple
  83. Hearing the Early Oriole
  84. Dreaming That I Went with Lu and Yu to Visit Yüan Chēn
  85. The Fifteenth Volume
  86. Invitation to Hsiao Chü-shih
  87. To Li Chien
  88. The Spring River
  89. After Collecting the Autumn Taxes
  90. Lodging with the Old Man of the Stream
  91. To His Brother Hsing-chien
  92. The Pine-Trees in the Courtyard
  93. Sleeping on Horseback
  94. Parting from the Winter Stove
  95. Good-Bye to the People of Hangchow
  96. Written When Governor of Soochow
  97. Getting Up Early on a Spring Morning
  98. Losing a Slave-Girl
  99. The Grand Houses at Lo-yang
  100. The Cranes
  101. On His Baldness
  102. Thinking of the Past
  103. A Mad Poem Addressed to My Nephews and Nieces
  104. Old Age
  105. To a Talkative Guest
  106. To Liu Yu-hsi
  107. My Servant Wakes Me
  108. Since I Lay Ill
  109. Song of Past Feelings
  110. Illness
  111. Resignation
  112. The Lute Girl
  113. The Never-ending Wrong
  114. The River and the Leaf
  115. Lake Shang
  116. The Ruined Home
  117. A Palace Story
  118. Peaceful Old Age
  119. Sleeplessness
  120. The Grass
  121. Autumn across the Frontier
  122. The Flower Fair
  123. The Penalties of Rank
  124. The Island of Pines
  125. Springtide
  126. The Ancient Wind
  127. Deserted
  128. Hearing the Early Oriole (Written in Exile)
  129. In Yung-Yang
  130. Rain at Dawn
  131. Myself
  132. Morning Studies
  133. The Little Crow
  134. At Forty-One
  135. A Night on Lake T’ai
  136. A Suggestion to My Friend Liu
  137. A Song of the Palace
  138. Grasses
  139. To My Brothers and Sisters Adrift in Troubled Times, This Poem of the Moon
  140. A Song of Unending Sorrow
  141. The Song of a Guitar

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