Page:A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1919).djvu/116

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[6]

BLAMING SONS

[AN APOLOGY FOR HIS OWN DRUNKENNESS]

White hair covers my temples,
I am wrinkled and seared beyond repair,
And though I have got five sons,
They all hate paper and brush.
A-shu is eighteen:
For laziness there is none like him.
A-hsüan does his best,
But really loathes the Fine Arts.
Yung-tuan is thirteen,
But does not know "six" from "seven."[1]
T'ung-tzŭ in his ninth year
Is only concerned with things to eat.
If Heaven treats me like this,
What can I do but fill my cup?

  1. Written in Chinese with two characters very easy to distinguish.
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