白居易诗选/六十拜河南尹

六十河南尹，前途足可知。

老應無處避，病不與人期。

Arthur Waley

Addressed to Liu Mēng-tē, who had asked for a poem. He was the same age as Po Chü-i. Between thirty and forty, one is distracted by the Five Lusts; Between seventy and eighty, one is a prey to a hundred diseases. But from fifty to sixty one is free from all ills;

幸遇芳菲日，猶富強健時。

萬金何假藉，一醆莫推辭。

Arthur Waley

Calm and still--the heart enjoys rest. I have put behind me Love and Greed; I have done with Profit and Fame; I am still short of illness and decay and far from decrepit age. Strength of limb I still possess to seek the rivers and hills;

流水光陰急，浮雲富貴遲。

人間若無酒，盡合鬢成絲。

Arthur Waley

Still my heart has spirit enough to listen to flutes and strings. At leisure I open new wine and taste several cups; Drunken I recall old poems and sing a whole volume. Mēng-tē has asked for a poem and herewith I exhort him Not to complain of three-score, “the time of obedient ears.”[92] him.” This age was therefore called “the time of obedient ears.”