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Within the vermilion gate, meats and wines go to waste
While on the roadside lie the frozen bodies of the poor.

朱門酒肉臭
路有凍死骨

Original text (Chinese)

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Notes from Wikiquote

As quoted in Lin Yutang's The Vermilion Gate (1914)

More quotes by Du Fu

Lovely rains, knowing their season,
Always appear in spring. Entering night
Secretly on the wind, they silently
Bless things with such delicate abundance.

Nature ever calls people to live
Along with her; why should I be lured
By transient rank and honours?

The nation is ruined,
but mountains and rivers remain.

At the border posts, shed blood becomes a sea,
The martial emperor's dream of expansion has no end.

I'm empty, here at the edge of the sky.

All Du Fu quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Du Fu (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.