Returning at Night
By Li Xing
With my thin figure and a donkey I ride,
with a clatter of its hoofs in Chengdu city south.
At paradise drive, quite wide are the pavements,
moonlit in, while they can, enjoying life are the drinkers.
This vast earthly world is just like chaos and fog,
and the skylight lets the Silvery River in, flat and waveless.
I need to wash the heat off my body with home bathing,
in courtyard, lie down on a cool bed against the trees.
translated by Chen Zihong
晚归
【清】李惺
瘦影一驴驮，
城南踏踏过。
天街车路阔，
月地酒人多。
尘海浑如雾，
星河淡不波。
归来涤残暑，
徙塌就庭柯。
注：李惺（1785年－1863年），字伯子，号西沤，四川垫江县（现重庆市垫江县）南郊冯家湾人。清朝政治人物、学者。嘉庆二十二年（1817年）丁丑科进士。选翰林院庶吉士，散馆授检讨。历升国子监司业、詹事府左赞善。有《西沤外籍》10卷、《可邡诗稿》传世。《清史列传》有传。《国朝全蜀诗钞》赞其天才风雅、学贯群流。道光十五年（1835年）辞官返川后，在成都锦江书院主掌讲席20年。
此诗选自《国朝全蜀诗钞》卷三十八。
