Tao Qian’s Return to Nature consists of five poems, of which the preceding one is the first and this is the third. The first describes the poet’s cottage and the third relates his rural life. There is nothing more prosaic than this simple rustic life from sunrise to sunset, yet Tao Qian makes it poetic by imparting to us his personal feeling which moves us to love what he loved.

RETURN TO NATURE
Beneath the southern hills I sow my bean,
Their shoots are lost among the rank grass green.
Early I rise to clear the weeds away;
I plod home, hoe on shoulder, with the moon ray.
The paths are narrow, tall are the growths new.
My clothes moistened by the evening dew.
What does it matter even if I’m wet,
So long as my heart’s desire can be met!

归园田居

种豆南山下，草盛豆苗稀。

晨兴理荒秽，带月荷锄归。

道狭草木长，夕露沾我衣。

衣沾不足惜，但使愿无违。

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