“First Arrival in Huangzhou” is a seven-character regulated verse written by Su Shi, a writer of the Northern Song Dynasty. This poem describes what the author saw when he first arrived in Huangzhou, and deeply depicts Su Shi’s complex and contradictory mood when he first arrived in Huangzhou. There is self-mockery and self-pity, and ridicule towards the powerful, but he treats his experience with a broad mind, finds beauty in nature, and seeks the joy of life in adversity, which shows the poet’s consistent open-mindedness and optimism.
《初到黄州》是北宋文学家苏轼创作的一首七言律诗。这首诗描写作者初到黄州的所见，深刻地刻画了苏轼初到黄州时的复杂矛盾的心绪。有自嘲自伤，有对权势者的嘲笑，却又以超旷的胸襟对待自己的遭遇，在自然中发现美，在逆境中寻求生活的乐趣，表现了诗人一贯的豁达、乐观。
苏轼·《初到黄州》
自笑平生为口忙，老来事业转荒唐。
长江绕郭知鱼美，好竹连山觉笋香。
逐客不妨员外置，诗人例作水曹郎。
只惭无补丝毫事，尚费官家压酒囊。
Upon My Arrival in Huangzhou
Su Shi
I laugh at my life for being kept busy by my mouth;
My career, in my senior years, has gone terribly awry.
Living in the loop of the Yangtze, I have a taste for fish;
Bamboos hill after hill, I’m keen on their delicious shoots.
An exile? Why not put him in an out-of-payroll position;
Poets, in such cases, usually join the ranks of water boys1,
Embarrassing, though, for no duties required whatsoever,
Not to say, in the form of wine bags2 the official handouts.
