The Grand Houses at Lo-Yang

More Translations from the Chinese, by Arthur Waley, [1919], at sacred-texts.com

p. 82

[50] THE GRAND HOUSES AT LO-YANG

(Circa A.D. 829)

By woods and water, whose houses are these
With high gates and wide-stretching lands?
From their blue gables gilded fishes hang;
By their red pillars carven coursers run.
Their spring arbours, warm with caged mist;
Their autumn yards with locked moonlight cold.
To the stem of the pine-tree amber beads cling;
The bamboo-branches ooze ruby-drops.
Of lake and terrace who may the masters be?
Staff-officers, Councillors-of-State.
All their lives they have never come to see,
But know their houses only from the bailiff's map !