<Header>
<Author: 白居易>
<Title: 秦中吟十首 買花>
<Format: 格式不明>
<Year: 1934>
<BookName: SELECT CHINESE VERSES>
<Translator: HERBERT A. GILES & ARTHUR WALEY>
<TranslatedTitle: The Flower Market>
<BookPage: 93>
<UsedPage: 1>
<Feature: 1>
<End Header>
<Poem>
帝城春欲暮，
喧喧車馬度。
共道牡丹時，
相隨買花去。
貴賤無常價，
酬直看花數。
灼灼百朵紅，
戔戔五束素。
上張幄幕庇，
旁織巴籬護。
水灑復泥封，
移來色如故。
家家習爲俗，
人人迷不悟。
有一田舍翁，
偶來買花處。
低頭獨長歎，
此歎無人喻。
一叢深色花，
十戶中人賦。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
In the Royal city spring is almost over:
Tinkle, tinkle  the coaches and horsemen pass.
We tell each other : "This is the peony season":
And follow the crowd that goes to the Flower market.
Cheap and dear— no uniform price:
The cost of the plant depends on the number of blossoms.
Sparkling there are hundreds of red blossoms;
Piled up are the clusters of snowy white—
All are protected with an awning spread:
Around is woven a wattle-fence to screen them.
If you sprinkle water and cover the roots with mud,
When they are transplanted, they will not lose their beauty.
Each household thought less follows the custom,
Man by man no one realizing.
There happened to be an old farm labourer 
who came by chance that way.
He bowed his heed and sighed a deep sigh:
But this sigh no body understood.
He was thinking. "A cluster of deep-red flowers
Would pay the taxes of ten poor houses."
<End Translation>
<Formatted Translation>
In the Royal city spring is almost over:
Tinkle, tinkle  the coaches and horsemen pass.
We tell each other : "This is the peony season":
And follow the crowd that goes to the Flower market.
Cheap and dear— no uniform price:
The cost of the plant depends on the number of blossoms.
Sparkling there are hundreds of red blossoms;
Piled up are the clusters of snowy white—
All are protected with an awning spread:
Around is woven a wattle-fence to screen them.
If you sprinkle water and cover the roots with mud,
When they are transplanted, they will not lose their beauty.
Each household thought less follows the custom,
Man by man no one realizing.
There happened to be an old farm labourer 
who came by chance that way.
He bowed his heed and sighed a deep sigh:
But this sigh no body understood.
He was thinking. "A cluster of deep-red flowers
Would pay the taxes of ten poor houses."
<End Formatted Translation>