A PLEASURE GARDEN IN EARLY SUMMER

Dai Fugu

(Southern Song Dynasty)

Nursling ducks swim in pools deep here and shallow there;

Mume fruit is ripe, the weather now cloudy now fair.

I bring wine to drink in the garden east and west,

And strip the loquat of golden fruit without rest.

初夏游张园

[南宋]戴复古

乳鸭池塘水浅深,熟梅天气半晴阴。

东园载酒西园醉,摘尽枇杷一树金。

About the poet 

Dai Fugu was a Southern Song Dynasty poet (1127-1279) who has put a lot of patriotic thinking into his poetry creations.

About the translator 

Xu Yuanchong (1921-2021) was born in Nanchang in East China's Jiangxi Province. He was a professor of literary translation at Peking University.

About the book 

Golden Treasury of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Poetry Translated by Xu Yuanchong & Xu Ming Published by China Intercontinental Press