<Header>
<Author: 白居易>
<Title: 改業>
<Format: 七言律詩>
<Year: 1981>
<BookName: Tu Fu -A New Translation>
<Translator: Wu, Juntao>
<TranslatedTitle: Change in Vocation>
<BookPage: 497>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 1>
<End Header>
<Poem>
先生老去飲無興
居士病來閒有餘
猶覺醉吟多放逸
不如禪定更清虛
柘枝紫曲教丸藥
羯鼓蒼頭遺種蔬
卻被山僧戲相問
一時改業意何如
<End Poem>
<Translation>
The old gentleman grows older;
He drinks, but there's no joy in it.
The recluse sickens;
He's idle much too often.
He recognizes that the drunken poet
Is far too abandoned.
He should settle himself seriously
In pure emptiness of Zen.
I'll have my purple sleeved dancers,
Whose robes are mulberry-dyed,
Taught to pluck medicinal herbs;
I'll send my servant who plays the drum
To bring wild vegetables
Into my kitchen garden.
Then the Mountain Priest
Will playfully ask:
Are you really proposing
A change in vocation?
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
The old gentleman grows older; He drinks, but there's no joy in it.
The recluse sickens; He's idle much too often.
He recognizes that the drunken poet is far too abandoned.
He should settle himself seriously in pure emptiness of Zen.
I'll have my purple sleeved dancers, whose robes are mulberry-dyed, taught to pluck medicinal herbs;
I'll send my servant who plays the drum to bring wild vegetables into my kitchen garden.
Then the Mountain Priest will playfully ask:
Are you really proposing a change in vocation?
<End Formatted Translation>