Thursday, August 9, 2012

Lodging With The Old Man Of The Stream Comments

Rating: 3.0

Men's hearts love gold and jade;
Men's mouths covet wine and flesh.
Not so the old man of the stream;
He drinks from his gourd and asks nothing more.
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Bai Juyi
COMMENTS
Eugene Levich 06 May 2014

This poem is one of the finest examples of Taoist philosophy in literature. The Old Man's life flows along as does the stream; his life of simplicity according perfectly with nature. The narrator in part envies the Old Man's freedom from desire and worry... but a Privy Councillor must continue along his own chosen path as a high-ranking imperial official... a position governed by desire and fraught with worry.

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Bai Juyi

Bai Juyi

Taiyuan, Shanxi
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