In Chang’an, who notices the cloth-gowned scholar?
Locked behind his gate and guarding his walls.
The old man doesn’t go out, the weeds grow tall,
Children blithely rush through wind and rain.
The rustling rain hastens the early cold,
And geese with wet wings find high flying hard.
This autumn we’ve had no glimpse of the white sun,
When will the mud and dirt become dry earth?
Notes: This poem dates from 754 (Watson p. 22). Chang’an was the capital city of China. Du Fu at this time had no official position, and so wore an ordinary gown (Watson, p. 23).
This poem is volume (juàn) 216, no. 15 in the Complete Tang Poems (quán táng shī). It is translated as poem 17 in Watson, p. 23.
Watson, B. (2002) The Selected Poems of Du Fu. New York, Columbia University Press.
