127. A VISIT TO FAN WITH LI PO
My honored friend, Li, writes excellent verses, Th \t ring at times like Ying-kao's masterly lines. I, too, a sojourner of Tung Meng, Love him as a younger brother loves the elder. Drunk, we sleep both under one cover at night; And in daytime we go together hand in hand. Now longing for a place of quiet company, We come to visit you on the city's northside. Your little boy waits on us so handsomely, Joy leaps in our hearts as we enter your gate. What solitude! We hear only the chilly mallets, And see the clouds bivouac before the old city wall. Having always sung the ode of the sweet citron, Who cares to seek for the soup of the water-herbs? You desire not the debasement of official life, But remain untrammeled like the blue, boundless sea.
TuFu.
��This poem was written in the earlier days of their friendship when Li Po and Tu Fu were both in Shan- tung. Tung Meng is a district in that province. [189]
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