Dragons and snakes haunt marshlands, While paired deer roam thick grasslands. Phoenixes live content in wutung trees, While hermit fish delight in duckweed. And I'm just like them, in love with my thatch hut, My simple ways pure delight. Pines out front, bamboo lofty in back, I could idle away old age with ease here. Ev'rything stays close to what keeps it content. No matter what others may crave
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Authorship:
- possibly by Arthur Waley (1889 - 1969) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Bai Juyi (772 - 846) [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Kenneth Hesketh (b. 1968), "Enjoying Pine and Bamboo", first performed 2007 [ voice and piano ], from Shimmerwords and Idle Songs, no. 2, confirmed with a concert programme booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2018-01-25
Line count: 10
Word count: 69