Written for My Two Children in East Lu
- Poetry of Li Bai (Li Po)

吴地桑叶绿，吴蚕已三眠。

我家寄东鲁，谁种龟阴田？

春事已不及，江行复茫然。

南风吹归心，飞堕酒楼前。

楼东一株桃，枝叶拂青烟。

此树我所种，别来向三年。

桃今与楼齐，我行尚未旋。

娇女字平阳，折花倚桃边。

折花不见我，泪下如流泉。

小儿名伯禽，与姊亦齐肩。

双行桃树下，抚背复谁怜？

念此失次第，肝肠日忧煎。

裂素写远意，因之汶阳川。

Mulberry leaves in Southern land are green,

The silkworms thrice in sleep must have been.

In Eastern Lu my family stay still.

Who'd help to sow our fields north of Lu Hill?

It's now too late to do farmwork of spring.

What then am I to do while travelling?

The southern wind is blowing without stop,

My heart flies back to my old familiar wine-shop.

East of the shop there's a peach tree I've missed,

Its branches must be waving in bluish mist.

It is the tree I plant'd three years ago,

If it has grown to reach the roof,I don't know.

I have not been at home for three long years.

I can imagine my daughter appears 

Beside the tree and plucks a flower pink.

Without seeing me,she must have,I think,

Shed copious tears.My younger son has grown 

Up to his sister's shoulders.'Neath full-blown 

Peach tree they stand side by side.But who's there 

To pat them on the back?I feel,whene'er 

I think of this,so painful that I write 

And send to them this poem on silk white.