On the Eighteenth Day of the Eleventh Month, While Warming Myself in the Sun, I Wished to Find a Theme for a Poem at the South Hall and Opened a Book, and So Got the Graph 白, "White." White Is the Plain Ground. I Am Now Begging Leave to Retire and Mean to Follow My Plain Ground, and It Suits My Mind. I Therefore Took "Chanting the White" as the Theme, Drew Again the Graph 庭, "Courtyard," for the Rhyme, and Composed; Before I Knew It the Lines Had Run to Many. Then I Invited Vice Minister Yi to Compose Along With Me (十一月十八日暴日。南軒欲覓題爲詩。因披書冊。遂得白字。乃曰白者質也。吾方乞退。將從本質。愜吾志也。遂以詠白爲題。復探得庭字爲韻賦之。不覺多至累句。仍邀李侍郞同賦。)十一月十八日暴日。南軒欲覓題爲詩。因披書冊。遂得白字。乃曰白者質也。吾方乞退。將從本質。愜吾志也。遂以詠白爲題。復探得庭字爲韻賦之。不覺多至累句。仍邀李侍郞同賦。
質素由來貴。丹黃勿要經。圭磨寧有玷。璧碎不渝形。積雪鋪寒屋。平沙布漫汀。三冬氷正合。八月露初零。杲杲當中日。盈盈報曙星。華堂崇璐砌。香寢擁銀屛。詩老衰髯變。佳姬醉面醒。梨花開滿苑。柳絮落堆庭。蚕緖抽難斷。鮫綃織不停。謫仙名可記。居易姓堪銘。海澨鯨遺骨。山陬鶴墮翎。道裝披羽服。商律肅金刑。石齒舂奔瀨。潮頭起大溟。雉來彰魏德。蛇死哭秦靈。粲粒方研臼。新刀始發硎。悲絲應自惜。歌紵亦宜聽。縞帶垂瑤佩。瓊漿酌玉甁。邇來憎俗子。無復眼迴靑。
The plain white ground has been prized from of old; do not seek to dye it red or yellow. Grind a gui jade (圭) — how should a flaw be left? Shatter a ring jade (璧) — its substance does not change. Heaped snow covers the cold house, and level sand spreads along the far shore. In deep winter the ice is freezing hard, and in the eighth month the dew first falls. Bright and bright is the midday sun, and glittering, the star that heralds dawn. The splendid hall raises steps of white jade, and the fragrant bedchamber is ringed with silver screens. The old poet's withering beard turns white, and the fair woman's flushed face whitens as she sobers. Pear blossoms open and fill the garden, and willow catkins fall and heap in the courtyard. Silk drawn from the cocoon does not break, and the mermaid's woven gauze never stops in the weaving. The banished immortal — White was his name, and Bai Juyi — White was his surname. By the sea the whale leaves its bones, and in a fold of the hills the crane lets fall a feather. The Daoist's garb is a white robe of plumes, and the autumn mode is stern with frostlike punishment. Rock teeth pound the racing rapids, and the head of the tide rises on the great ocean. A white pheasant came and made plain the virtue of Wei (魏), and when the white serpent died the spirit of Qin (秦) wept. White grains are only now pounded in the mortar, and a new blade is only now ground from the whetstone. To grieve at the sight of white silk is a thing one may cherish in oneself, and the song of the white ramie is worth the hearing too. From a white silk sash hangs a jade pendant, and clear wine like pearl is poured into a jade bottle. Of late I have hated the vulgar sort, and never again do I turn upon them the blue of my eyes.