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[1] swallowed his sulphur pills,
Yet a single illness carried him straight to the grave.
Yüan Chēn smelted autumn stone[2]
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 lust 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 I served the spirits of my Five Guts;[3]
With wine I watered the three Vital Spots.
Day by day joining the broken clod
I have lived till now almost sound and whole.
There 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.
Thinking of the Past
思旧
闲日一思旧，旧游如目前。
再思今何在，零落归下泉。
退之服硫黄，一病讫不痊。
微之炼秋石，未老身溘然。
杜子得丹诀，终日断腥膻。
崔君夸药力，经冬不衣绵。
或疾或暴夭，悉不过中年。
唯予不服食，老命反迟延。
况在少壮时，亦为嗜欲牵。
但耽荤与血，不识汞与铅。
饥来吞热物，渴来饮寒泉。
诗役五藏神，酒汨三丹田。
随日合破坏，至今粗完全。
齿牙未缺落，肢体尚轻便。
已开第七秩，饱食仍安眠。
且进杯中物，其余皆付天。
This entry was posted in Sentiment and Reflection and tagged friends, greed, illness, lust
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[1] Han Yu, the famous poet, d. 824 A.D.
[2] Carbamide crystals.
[3] Heart, liver, stomach, lungs and kidney.