Serious Thoughts On New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve--you'd think I could go home early

But official business keeps me.

I hold the brush and face them with tears:

Pitiful convicts in chains,

Little men who tried to fill their bellies,

Fell into the law's net, don't understand disgrace.

And I?  In love with a meager stipend

I hold on to my job and miss the chance to retire.

Do not ask who is foolish or wise;

All of us alike scheme for a meal.

The ancients would have freed them a while at New Year's--

Would I dare do likewise? I am silent with shame.

~Su Dungpo (1037-1101)

from An Introduction to Sung Poetry by Kojiro Yoshikawa, 

transl. by Burton Watson