I Am a Madman - Du Fu

[Larry Robinson]

I Am a Madman
 
My thatched cottage stands
just west of Thousand Mile Bridge
 
this Hundred Flower Stream
would please a hermit fisherman
 
bamboo sways in the wind
graceful as any court beauty
 
rain makes the lotus flower
even more red and fragrant
 
but I no longer hear from friends
who live on princely salaries
 
my children are always hungry
with pale and famished faces
 
does a madman grow more happy
before he dies in the gutter?
 
I laugh at myself -- a madman
growing older, growing madder.
 
     - Du Fu (712 - 770)



“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”
	- Wendell Berry