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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Arthur Waley, trans.

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

On the Birth of a Son

Arthur Waley, trans.

From “Chinese Poems”

Su Shih—Eleventh Century

FAMILIES when a child is born

Hope it will turn out intelligent.

I, through intelligence

Having wrecked my whole life,

Only hope that the baby will prove

Ignorant and stupid.

Then he’ll be happy all his days

And grow into a Cabinet Minister.