Laudator Temporis Acti

Du Fu (712-770), "The Terrace Southwest of Meipi," lines 13-24 (tr. Stephen Owen, with his notes):

Belabored by life, I am ashamed before Yan and Zheng,²
I admire Zhang and Bing in placing things beyond them.³
This age also has contempt for the Hualiu steed,
so I am willing to mingle with frogs and bullfrogs.    16
Knowing when to go home, the common may be ignored,
nothing can match the choice of what suits one's nature.
Why wait to get office to withdraw from public life? —
getting older, I'm intensely drawn to comfortable quiet.    20
Better to be supplied with plenty of water-nuts and euryale,
I will perhaps make a thatched dwelling in this remote spot.
From this point on I will ready a tiny boat
and, to the fullness of my years, pursue the clear scene.    24

² *Yan Junping; *Zheng Pu; that is, recluses.
³ Zhang Zhongwei and Bing Manrong, two Han recluses.

Owen has no note for "the Hualiu steed" (line 15), so here is his note on Du Fu's poem "A Song for Wei Yan's Mural of Horses" (line 3: Hualiu steeds):

One of the Zhou King Mu's famous horses, used generally for fine steeds.

Water-nuts (line 21) I assume are water chestnuts; the common name for euryale is prickly water lily, whose edible part is called fox nut.

Related post: Swamp Life.