Monday, September 01, 2008
I Am a Madman (Du Fu)
I Am a Madman
My thatched cottage stands
just west of Thousand Mile Bridge
this Hundred Flower Stream
would please a hermit fisherman
bamboo sways in the wind
graceful as any court beauty
rain makes the lotus flower
even more red and fragrant
but I no longer hear from friends
who live on princely salaries
my children are always hungry
with pale and famished faces
does a madman grow more happy
before he dies in the gutter?
I laugh at myself -- a madman
growing older, growing madder.
Du Fu (712 - 770)
(picture from Wikipedia)
