Five-character poems describing summer

Author Bai Juyi, Tang Dynasty,

The Tian family has less leisure in the month, and people are twice as busy in May.

In the evening, the south wind rises and the wheat turns yellow.

A woman's husband is hungry and her child is pregnant with pot pulp.

Go with Tian Xiang. Ding Zhuang is in Nangang.

Summer is steaming and rustic, and the back is burning.

I don't know about the heat, but I regret the long summer.

Another poor woman, holding her son,

Grab the ear with your right hand and hang the basket with your left arm.

Listening to his words of concern is very sad.

My family's taxes are gone, so I can take this to satisfy my hunger.

Today, I have no merit, and I have never worked in farming and mulberry.

There are three hundred stones in the land, and there is surplus food at the age of eight.

I am ashamed to read this in private, and I can't forget it every day.

Translation annotation

Farmers rarely have free months, and when May comes, people are busier.

At night, the south wind blew, and the wheat covered on the ridge was ripe and yellow.

Women use bamboo baskets to pick food and children's hand-held pots to hold water.

Follow each other to deliver food in the fields, and the men who collect wheat are all in Nangang.

Their feet were smoked by the heat of the ground and their backs were basking in the hot sun.

Tired as if I didn't know it was hot, I just cherished the long summer.

I saw a poor woman standing beside the wheat harvester with her child in her arms.

The left ear of wheat was picked up in the right hand, and a broken basket was hung on the left arm.

Listening to her look at others, everyone who hears her feels sorry for her.