「秦中吟十首。买花（一作牡丹）」白居易

帝城春欲暮，喧喧车马度。共道牡丹时，相随买花去。

贵贱无常价，酬直看花数。灼灼百朵红，戋戋五束素。

上张幄幕庇，旁织巴篱护。水洒复泥封，移来色如故。

家家习为俗，人人迷不悟。有一田舍翁，偶来买花处。

低头独长叹，此叹无人喻。一丛深色花，十户中人赋。

THE FLOWER MARKET 

In the Royal City spring is almost over:

Tinkle, tinkle — the coaches and horsemen pass.

We tell each other "This is the peony season":

And follow with the crowd that goes to the Flower Market.

" Cheap and dear — no uniform price:

The cost of the plant depends on the number of blossoms.

For the fine flower, — a hundred pieces of damask:

For the cheap flower, — five bits of silk.

Above is spread an awning to protect them :

Around is woven a wattle-fence to screen them.

If you sprinkle water and cover the roots with mud,

When they are transplanted, they will not lose their beauty." 

Each household thoughtlessly follows the custom, 

Man by man, no one realizing. 

There happened to be an old farm labourer

Who came by chance that way. 

He bowed his head and sighed a deep sigh: 

But this sigh nobody understood. 

He was thinking, “ A cluster of deep-red flowers 

Would pay the taxes of ten poor houses."