CHINESE POETRY
Poetry of Li Shen ( 772 – 846 )

Sympathy for the Peasants

(The Crops of the Field)
Retranslated by Professor Gloom

When at noon,
The workers under the sun
With sweating,
Glistening,
Droplets of work they have done,
The hard toil
In the soil
Life water dripping to sate
As the seeds
Water needs
The coming of rains they await.
Plowing fields
For a bowl of food it yields.

Without thought
The workers consume at rest,
What sweat bought.


Gloom 99


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