Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, YEARS VANISH LIKE THE MORNING DEW, by MEI SHENG


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

YEARS VANISH LIKE THE MORNING DEW, by                    
First Line: I drive my chariot up to the eastern gate
Last Line: And clothe our bodies in robes of satin and silk.
Subject(s): China - Early Period (to 200 B.c.); Death; Dead, The


I DRIVE my chariot up to the Eastern Gate;
From afar I see the graveyard north of the Wall.
The white aspens how they murmur, murmur;
Pines and cypresses flank the broad paths.
Beneath lie men who died long ago;
Black, black is the long night that holds them.
Deep down beneath the Yellow Springs,
Thousands of years they lie without waking.

In infinite succession light and darkness shift,
And years vanish like the morning dew.
Man's life is like a sojourning,
His longevity lacks the firmness of stone and metal.
For ever it has been that mourners in their turn were mourned,
Saint and Sage, -- all alike are trapped.
Seeking by food to obtain Immortality
Many have been the dupe of strange drugs.
Better far to drink good wine
And clothe our bodies in robes of satin and silk.





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