At Noon on the Day of Hoeing: written by Li Shen, a poet of the Tang Dynasty.
Original text of the work:
Two poems about pity for farmers - Part 2
It was noon on the day of hoeing, and sweat dripped from the soil.
Who knows that every meal on the plate is hard work.
Explanation of the poem:
Farmers are hoeing under the scorching sun at noon, and sweat drips from their bodies on the land where the seedlings grow.
Who knows that every grain of food on the plate was earned by farmers through hard work.
About the author:
Li Shen (772-846), courtesy name Gongchui, was born in Wuxi, Runzhou (now Wuxi, Jiangsu). In the first year of Yuanhe (806), Emperor Xianzong of the Tang Dynasty, he was a Jinshi. He was once imprisoned for offending the powerful. During the reign of Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty, he was the prime minister and later served as the military governor of Huainan.
He had close contacts with Yuan Zhen, Bai Juyi and others. Before Yuan and Bai advocated "New Yuefu", he was the first to create twenty Yuefu poems, which are now lost. He was one of the advocates of the New Yuefu movement. "Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" contains three volumes of "Poems on Travels to the Past" and one volume of "Miscellaneous Poems".