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Tu Fu (712–770) returned to Ch’ang-an at the end of 757 and was reappointed as a censor. But the post was merely a sinecure and he felt powerless to do anything to help the country recover from the An Lu-shan Rebellion. He wrote this and the next poem the following April while visiting the serpentine lake formed by an artificial canal that brought water from the Chungnan Mountains to the southeast corner of the capital. After passing the civil service exam in 752, Tu Fu and his fellow graduates were entertained by Emperor Hsuan-tsung at Purple Cloud Pavilion at the southwest corner of this waterway. But the pavilion and surrounding structures had since become home to kingfishers, which never nest near places frequented by humans, and the stone statues in front of the nearby grave mound of the Ch’in dynasty’s Second Emperor had been knocked down.

While Drinking at the Chuchiang Waterway—I

TU FU

Each flying petal diminishes the spring

ten thousand on the wind break a person’s heart

watching the final flowers fall before my eyes

how could too much wine pass between my lips

kingfishers nest below the waterway pavilions

and the unicorns have fallen by the garden tomb

to ponder such things is to turn to pleasure

what use is mere fame if it weighs a person down