Delighted That My Cousin Lu Lun Stays the Night
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
荒居旧业贫。
雨中黄叶树，
灯下白头人。
以我独沉久，
愧君相见频。
平生自有分，
况是蔡家亲。
English translation
In the quiet night no neighbors all around, my poor dwelling, my old inheritance, are mean.
A tree of yellow leaves in the rain, by the lamp, a white-haired man.
Since I have long sunk in solitude, I am shamed that you so often come to see me.
All our lives we have been bound by fate, and more than that, we are kin.
Meaning
In the deep still night there is no neighbor near, for I live in the wilds because my household is poor. The yellow leaves on the tree fall thick in the rain, like the fate of a white-haired old man beneath the lamp. I am ashamed to have sunk so long in loneliness, and to have failed you who come so often to comfort me. We are friends in poetry by nature, and all the more because our two families are kin.
Background
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Both Sikong Shu and Lu Lun are counted among the Ten Talents of the Dali era; they were well matched in poetic craft and were also cousins. According to the fourth juan of the Biographies of Tang Poets, Sikong Shu was "open and upright, endowed with rare talent," but because "his nature was unbending and he would not seek favor from the powerful," he ended with an obstructed official career and a poor household. This poem is a true portrait of the author in such circumstances.