Villager's Song II
- Poetry of Liu Zongyuan
Fences part the cooking glow,
Neighbors whisper—soft and low.
Crickets chant through hemp's thin shade,
Looms stand naked, silk betrayed.
Taxmen come with midnight feast,
Bragging how their lords increased:
"East carts drowned in autumn mire,
Yet the rods still sing with fire!"
"Save your skin, bend your spine,
New year's tax will taste like mine."
This poem constitutes the second of Liu Zongyuan's "Three Poems on Farming Households," composed during his southern exile (circa 805 AD onward). The triptych exposes agrarian hardships under feudal oppression, with this installment focusing on tax extraction's brutality. Witnessing firsthand how peasants were stripped of possessions and subjected to corporal punishment by tax collectors, Liu—now ideologically aligned with populist concerns—crafted these visceral protests against systemic exploitation. The poem's documentary realism marks a pinnacle of Tang dynasty social critique poetry.
篱落隔烟火，农谈四邻夕。
庭际秋虫鸣，疏麻方寂历。
蚕丝尽输税，机杼空倚壁。
里胥夜经过，鸡黍事筵席。
各言官长峻，文字多督责。
东乡后租期，车毂陷泥泽。
公门少推恕，鞭朴恣狼藉。
努力慎经营，肌肤真可惜。
迎新在此岁，唯恐踵前迹。
- Why Chinese poems is so special?
- The most distinctive features of Chinese poetry are: concision- many poems are only four lines, and few are much longer than eight; ambiguity- number, tense and parts of speech are often undetermined, creating particularly rich interpretative possibilities; and structure- most poems follow quite strict formal patterns which have beauty in themselves as well as highlighting meaningful contrasts.
- How to read a Chinese poem?
- Like an English poem, but more so. Everything is there for a reason, so try to find that reason. Think about all the possible connotations, and be aware of the different possibilities of number and tense. Look for contrasts: within lines, between the lines of each couplet and between successive couplets. Above all, don't worry about what the poet meant- find your meaning.