苏東坡 Su Dongpo’s Chunjie
On New Year’s Eve I should be home early,
but this office full of business keeps me.
Writing-brush in hand, hiding my tears,
I face all these bound prisoners, helpless
little people scrambling for food, snared
in the law’s net, and no reason for shame.
I’m no different: adoring a meager salary,
I follow orders, losing my chance to live
quiet and far away. No telling who’s noble,
who vile: we’re all just angling for a meal.
Could I free them for the holiday at least?
I brood in shame before ancients who did.
—— 苏東坡, c. 1080, transl. David Hinton
A senior regional officer in the Song government, Su Dongpo, actual name Su Shi (苏轼 / 苏東坡 / 蘇東坡, 1037-1101), wrote the poem that was inspired by a Daoist/Confucianist humanism a 1000 years before the term ‘human rights’ was invented, perversely. The poem’s lasting quality also lies in its realism, which is before post-modernist writing became popular in western literary circles.
Soon it shall be Day 30th in the last month of the 4,707th year of the lunar calendar; it’s chunjie 春 节. Next day there will be a new moon and is Day One of 4,708th year since the calendar was introduced and perfected in the Han era.
“New Year’s eve I should be home early … (but) I brood in shame before the ancients…“
Inside the Motherland
