Song of Kuizhou Bamboo Branches: No. 6
夔 州 竹 枝 歌
百 衲 畲 山 青 间 红
粟 茎 成 穗 豆 成 丛。
东 屯 平 田 粳 米 软
不 到 贫 人 饭 甑 中。
Kui Zhou Zhu Zhi Ge
Bai na she shan qing jian hong
Su jing cheng sui dou cheng cong.
Dong tun ping tian jing mi ruan
Bu dao pin ren fan zeng zhong.
Song of Kuizhou Bamboo Branches: No. 6
The She mountains like a monk’s thinned-out, multi-colored patched clothes
Millet stalks full of grain, soybeans have made their clusters.
Eastern villages with level fields of soft and round rice.
Poor people unable to afford filling up their rice steamers with this exquisite crop.
Notes:
She mountains: A minor ethnic group of southeast China.
Poor people have to pay their rice to the government for taxes.