<Header>
<Author: 白居易>
<Title: 思舊>
<Format: 格式不明>
<Year: 1919>
<BookName: Translation from the Chinese>
<Translator: Arthur Waley>
<TranslatedTitle: Thinking of the Past>
<BookPage: 251>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 4>
<End Header>
<Poem>
閑日一思舊，
舊遊如目前。
再思今何在，
零落歸下泉。
退之服硫黃，
一病訖不痊。
微之鍊秋石，
未老身溘然。
杜子得丹訣，
終日斷腥羶。
崔君誇藥力，
經冬不衣綿。
或疾或暴夭，
悉不過中年。
唯予不服食，
老命反遲延。
況在少壯時，
亦爲嗜慾牽。
但躭葷與血，
不識汞與鉛。
飢來吞熱物，
渴來飲寒泉。
詩役五藏神，
酒汨三丹田。
隨日合破壞，
至今粗完全。
齒牙未缺落，
肢體尚輕便。
已開第七秩，
飽食仍安眠。
且進桮中物，
其餘皆付天。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
In an idle hour I thought of former days;
And former friends seemed to be standing in the room.
And then I wondered "Where are they now?"
Like fallen leaves they have tumbled  to the Nether Springs.
Han Yü swallowed his sulphur pills,
Yet a single illness carried him straight to the grave.
Yüan Chēn smelted autumn stone
But before he was old, his strength crumbled away.
Master Tu possessed the "Secret of Health":
All day long he fasted from meat and spice.
The Lord Ts'ui, trusting a strong drug,
Through the whole winter wore his summer coat.
Yet some by illness and some by sudden death...
All vanished ere their middle years were passed.
Only I, who have never dieted myself
Have thus protracted a tedious span of age,
I who in young days
Yielded lightly to every 1ust and greed;
Whose palate craved only for the richest meat
And knew nothing of bismuth or calomel.
When hunger came, I gulped steaming food;
When thirst came, I drank from the frozen stream.
With verse l served the spirits of my Five Guts;
With wine I watered the three Vital Spots.
Day by day joining the broken clod
I have lived till now almost sound and whole.
Three is no gap in my two rows of teeth;
Limbs and body still serve me well.
Already I have opened the seventh book of years;
Yet I eat my fill and sleep quietly;
I drink, while I may, the wine that lies in my cup,
And all else commit to Heaven's care.
<End Translation>