To Bi Siyao

Once stately figures in the art of rhyme,

Now sadly down at heels, our careers in ruin,

Regarded by our servants with disdain,

We are grown old and gray before our time.

Yet in your joyful, carefree company,

The most consoling thought occurs to me:

Though we are doomed to poverty and strife,

Our poems shall have a long and prosperous life.