For Love of Singing Poems (by Bai Juyi)

Here's another poem about poetry from Bai Juyi. As with many other Tang poets, Bai Juyi served for many years as a government minister, and his early poems address a broad range of personal and social themes.  But in his later years, after retiring form government service, he was drawn increasingly towards spiritual practice and his poems became far more explicit in identifying the inspiration for his poetry as being deeply connected to the Buddhist faith.

Reciting prose and poems

Through thousands of quatrains

My heart journeyed long 

Until it found refuge

In the Buddhist faith

Now resting on a hempen bed

Idly reading to myself

I ponder upon a prior lifetime

Being both a poet and monk

爱咏诗

白居易

辞章讽咏成千首

心行归依向一乘

坐倚绳床闲自念

前生应是一诗僧