Translation Trashbin - 33. Those willowy boys

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Those willowy boys –

And two other poems by Hanzan [i]

No. 212

To talk of food will part you with hunger;

To speak of clothes will leave you feeling exposed:

Eat food to be full; wear clothes to stay warm;

Give flesh what it's due, but find peace inwardly.

No. 229

Those willowy boys, four or five of them,

Are each blue-balled cocks at eighteen years old

But make companionable mates for years,

Copping postures of love, like foxing on pages.

No. 227

The dirt-poor yokel owns a full ten inches,

As the rich dog can claim but a measly three.

The best position is to be between them,

To enjoy the poor’s riches in the alms of the rich.