Bai Jyui: My New Gown

I use good cloth as white as snow
for a new gown; inside is sewn
padding soft as the clouds; the cloth
is heavy, padding thick, and I
am warm all day; at night, throwing it
over my quilt, I sleep
through until morning; who would
think that in the eleventh
and twelfth month of the year, I could
be as warm as if it were springtime?
When I awake at midnight,
suddenly a thought comes to me;
feeling the gown with one hand,
I stride to and fro; a hero ought
to try and help the needy;
how can it be that I
exhaust myself looking
after just one person? I
wonder how I can make a piece
of padded cloth ten thousand feet long
to clothe all the people from one horizon
to the other; everyone will be as warm
as I am today, and not a soul anywhere
will die of cold.