<Header>
<Author: 白居易>
<Title: 東坡種花二首其一>
<Format: 七言古詩>
<Year: 1919>
<BookName: Translation from the Chinese>
<Translator: Arthur Waley>
<TranslatedTitle: Planting Flowers on the Embankment>
<BookPage: 216>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 5>
<End Header>
<Poem>
持錢買花樹，
城東坡上栽。
但購有花者，
不限桃杏梅。
百果參雜種，
千枝次第開。
天時有早晚，
地力無高低。
紅者霞豔豔，
白者雪皚皚。
遊蜂逐不去，
好鳥亦來棲。
前有長流水，
下有小平臺。
時拂臺上石，
一舉風前杯。
花枝蔭我頭，
花蕊落我懷。
獨酌復獨詠，
不覺月平西。
巴俗不愛花，
竟春無人來。
唯此醉太守，
盡日不能迴。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
I took money and bought flowering trees
And planted them out on the bank to the east of the Keep.
I simply bought whatever had most blooms,
Not caring whether peach, apricot, or plum.
A hundred fruits, all mixed up together;
A thousand branches, flowering in due rotation.
Each has its season coming early or late;
But to all alike the fertile soil is kind.
The red flowers hang like a heavy mist;
The white flowers gleam like a fall of snow.
The wandering bees cannot bear to leave them;
The sweet birds also come there to roost.
In front there flows an ever-running stream;
Beneath there is built a little fat terrace.
Sometimes I sweep the flagstones of the terrace;
Sometimes, in the wind, I raise my cup and drink.
The flower-branches screen my head from the sun;
The flower-buds fall down into my lap.
Alone drinking, alone singing my songs
I do not notice that the moon is level with the steps.
The people of Pa do not care for flowers;
All the spring no one has come to look.
But their Governor General, alone with his cup of wine­
Sits till evening and will not move from the place!
<End Translation>