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Xiāng Lú Fēng Xià Xīn Bǔ Shān Jū Cǎo Táng Chū Chéng Ǒu Tí Dōng BìA New Mountain Cottage Below Incense Burner Peak, Written on the East Wall 香炉峰下新卜山居草堂初成偶题东壁

Bai Juyi (白居易, also known as Po Chü-i, Bai Letian)｜Mid Tang｜seven-character regulated verse

Bai Juyi's cozy morning that inspired Sei Shōnagon.

Original Chinese text with pinyin

日高睡足犹慵起
rì gāo shuì zú yóu yōng qǐ

小阁重衾不怕寒
xiǎo gé chóng qīn bù pà hán

遗爱寺钟欹枕听
yí ài sì zhōng qī zhěn tīng

香炉峰雪拨帘看
xiāng lú fēng xuě bō lián kàn

匡庐便是逃名地
kuāng lú biàn shì táo míng dì

司马仍为送老官
sī mǎ réng wéi sòng lǎo guān

心泰身宁是归处
xīn tài shēn níng shì guī chù

故乡何独在长安
gù xiāng hé dú zài cháng ān

Simplified characters; traditional title: 香爐峰下新卜山居草堂初成偶題東壁.

English translation

The sun is high, I have slept my fill, yet I am still too lazy to rise;

in my small loft under layered quilts, I do not fear the cold.

I listen to the bell of Yi'ai Temple, my pillow propped up;

I push aside the blind to look at the snow on Incense Burner Peak.

Mount Lu is just the place to escape from fame;

a marshal's post still serves as an office to grow old in.

Where heart is calm and body at peace, that is where I belong —

why should home be only in Chang'an?

Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.

Line by line

日高睡足犹慵起 · rì gāo shuì zú yóu yōng qǐ — The sun is high, I have slept my fill, yet I am still too lazy to rise;

小阁重衾不怕寒 · xiǎo gé chóng qīn bù pà hán — in my small loft under layered quilts, I do not fear the cold.

遗爱寺钟欹枕听 · yí ài sì zhōng qī zhěn tīng — I listen to the bell of Yi'ai Temple, my pillow propped up;

香炉峰雪拨帘看 · xiāng lú fēng xuě bō lián kàn — I push aside the blind to look at the snow on Incense Burner Peak.

匡庐便是逃名地 · kuāng lú biàn shì táo míng dì — Mount Lu is just the place to escape from fame;

司马仍为送老官 · sī mǎ réng wéi sòng lǎo guān — a marshal's post still serves as an office to grow old in.

心泰身宁是归处 · xīn tài shēn níng shì guī chù — Where heart is calm and body at peace, that is where I belong —

故乡何独在长安 · gù xiāng hé dú zài cháng ān — why should home be only in Chang'an?

Meaning and imagery

The first half is a delightful picture of idleness: late rising, warm quilts, temple bells heard from bed, snow seen by lifting the blind. The second half turns exile into contentment. Mount Lu is a place to escape fame, and a minor post is fine for old age. The final line — home is wherever the heart is at peace — is a gentle but firm answer to those who exiled him.

Background

Written in 817 when Bai Juyi had been demoted to marshal (sima) of Jiangzhou and built a thatched cottage on Mount Lu. The fourth line is famous in Japan through an episode in Sei Shōnagon's "The Pillow Book."

Key words

慵 yōng: lazy, languid
欹枕 qī zhěn: propping up the pillow
匡庐 Kuāng Lú: Mount Lu
司马 sī mǎ: marshal, a minor post for demoted officials

About the poet: Bai Juyi

Bai Juyi (also romanized Po Chü-i; courtesy name Letian) wrote in a famously plain style — legend says he read drafts to an old woman and revised anything she could not understand. An outspoken official, he was exiled to Jiangzhou and later governed Hangzhou and Suzhou. His poems were hugely popular in Heian Japan.

Lifetime: 772–846. Other famous works: On the Night of the Fifteenth of the Eighth Month, on Duty in the Palace, Thinking of Yuan Zhen (八月十五日夜禁中独直对月忆元九); A Question for Liu the Nineteenth (问刘十九); A New Mountain Cottage Below Incense Burner Peak, Written on the East Wall (香炉峰下新卜山居草堂初成偶题东壁); Grass on the Ancient Plain: A Farewell (赋得古原草送别); Song of Everlasting Sorrow (长恨歌); The Song of the Lute (琵琶行); The Old Charcoal Seller (卖炭翁).