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You’re currently reading “du fu | seven for the flowers near the river,” an entry on Bashō's Road

Published:
05.12.10 / 10pm
Category:
Du Fu

du fu | seven for the flowers near the river

1

The riverside flowers
are driving me crazy

because there’s no way
to describe their effect

I went to see
my neighbor and fellow drinker

he’s on a ten-day bender
all I found was an empty bed.

2

Flowers in crowds, shoals, galaxies
swarm and tangle by the river

I don’t walk I stagger
spring knocks me out

two things I can still manage
wine and poetry

you flowers
have pity on a white-haired man.

3

A few houses here
where the river is deep and the bamboos quiet

but these flowers
this red and white flirtation

and what can I give
in return?

yo, spring!
have some of this good wine.

4

Over to the east
Chengdu’s flowers are lost in smoke

and Hundred Blossom Tower
has it worse

who can afford that place—
wine in gold cups

dancing girls
in plush surroundings?

5

On the other side of the river
here’s Abbot Huang’s grave

spring light seems drowsy here
leaning against the breezes

a mass of peach blossoms
waiting to be picked

what do I want
a red one or a pink one?

6

Mrs. Huang’s garden
flowers engulfing the paths

thousands
weighing the branches

butterflies move pause move pause
it’s a dance

and the adorable orioles
know the appropriate music.

7

It’s not that I love them so much
I’m likely to die along with them

but I know I’ll age more quickly
when they’re gone

clusters, don’t wither and droop
so quickly

little buds, don’t rush it
open slowly!

[from DU FU A Life in Poetry, Translated by David Young, Knopf, 2010]

Editor’s Note: This is one magnificent translation, collection. -Norbert Blei