買花 白居易

買花        白居易(772-846)

帝城春欲暮，喧喧車馬度。共道牡丹時，相隨買花去。

貴賤無常價，酬直看花數，灼灼百朵紅，戔戔五束素。
上張幄幕庇，旁織笆籬護。水灑復泥封，移來色如故。
家家習為俗，人人迷不悟。有一田舍翁，偶來買花處。
低頭獨長嘆，此嘆無人諭：一叢深色花，十戶中人賦！

Buying Flowers      Bai Juyi (772-846)

Spring is drawing to its end in the Capital,

Horses and carriages hustle and bustle,
People are busily snapping up peonies as the custom entails,
To the flower market they throng the road,
The peonies are not priced as goods usual,
The sell at the number of blossoms countable,
A pot with over one hundred crimson blows,
Costs over twenty-five cotton cloth rolls,
Then they are put into covered hovels,
Or put behind protective rails,
Spraying with water and sealing with soil,
To protect their colour from turning pale,
Being the custom of every household,
Nobody sees this custom verges on evil,
One day comes an old man from the rural,
Sighing long and ruefully over the flower stall,
None knows for what he rues at all,
A pot of eye-catching peonies entails
Government levy of ten average households.