Bonus Poem! Tao Qian, Miscellaneous Poems No. 8

Bo-nus! Tao Qian is one of China's greatest poets, and this is the beginning of one of my favorite of his poems.

Miscellaneous Poems, Number Eight

Human life is without root, fluttering like dust on unknown roads,
Scattering apart in the slowly turning wind; this is not its eternal form.
Just as it falls to the dirt, it becomes young brothers. What need have kin of flesh or bone?
Attain contentment and make of it pleasure, and with wine gather closer with your neighbors.
Glorious years do not come again, days dawn but cannot twice rise.
When you can, take advantage, for time attends not man.

Oh, the white sun rolls West, and the bleached moon leaves the Eastern cliffs.
Rolling, rolling, an endless distance glimmers; empty, empty, the middle of the sky.
The wind comes into my house and my chamber; in the middle of the night my pillow and mat are cold.
The air shifts, and I awake to the change; I cannot sleep and know the eternity of the night.
Desire for speech, with no one to talk to; I raise a cup and drink to my lonely shadow.
The sun and the moon meet men, then go; even those of will cannot win their release.
Memory of this fills me with bitter regret; at the last I know I cannot be at peace.

杂诗八首
其一∶

人生无根蒂，飘如陌上尘。

分散逐风转，此已非常身。

落地为兄弟，何必骨肉亲！

得欢当作乐，斗酒聚比邻。

盛年不重来，一日难再晨。

及时当勉励，岁月不待人。

其二∶

白日沦西阿，素月出东岭。

遥遥万里辉，荡荡空中景。

风来入房户，夜中枕席冷。

气变悟时易，不眠知夕永。

欲言无予和，挥杯劝孤影。

日月掷人去，有志不获骋。

念此怀悲凄，终晓不能静。