Autumn Butterfly (by Bai Juyi)

On our walk this morning Marissa and I came across several small butterflies busily extracting a few last drops of nectar from the purple echinacea in our neighbor's garden.  It reminded me of a poem called Autumn Butterfly by the great Tang poet Bai Juyi.  So when I got home I decided to extract a few drops of nectar myself by translating the poem, providing yet another example of the fortuitous synchronicity between Tang poetry and my life. 

Autumn Butterfly

Autumn flower - a spray of purple

Autumn butterfly – a yellowish muddle

Flowers droop even as the young butterfly

Flies playfully from east to west

Come sunset a cool breeze will arrive

One by one the flowers will lose luster and

With the chill of white dew in night’s depth

The butterfly will die in the cluster’s midst

Born in morning by evening comes death

The life of each being proceeds at its own pace

Have you not seen the thousand-year cranes

Perched so high in their pine tree nest?

  

秋蝶

白居易

秋花紫蒙蒙     秋蝶黄茸茸

花低蝶新小     飞戏丛西东

日暮凉风来      纷纷花落丛

夜深白露冷      蝶已死丛中

朝生夕俱死      气类各相从

不见千年鹤      多栖百丈松