Normally I like Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comics. I really didn't like the awful Henry Hersch Hart translation of the Bái Juyì (Po Chü-i) poem used in this one (which is probably why I should agree that it's not great that every job requires a college degree).
Here's Hart's awful translation:
A Forsaken Garden
I enter the court
Through the middle gate—
And my sleeve is wet with tears.
The flowers still grow
In the courtyard,
Though two springs have fled
Since last their master came.
The windows, porch, and bamboo screen
Are just as they always were,
But at the entrance to the house
Someone is missing—
You!
Here's the original:
【重到毓村宅有感】 白居易著
欲入中門淚滿巾，庭花無主兩回春。
軒窗簾幕皆依舊，只是堂前欠一人。
Here's my effort:
"Feelings Upon Returning Again to the Dwelling in Yù Village"
About to enter the middle gate; tears moisten my kerchief
The flowers in the courtyard haven't a master for two springs
The windows and curtains are both as before
Only one person is missing from the front of the hall
There is no "you"!
Apparently Bai had began his studies in Yù Village (now Gǔ Fúlí Village 古符離村 in Fúlí xiàn in 符離縣) in Anhui Province and later returned there.
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