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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONG, by SUN TZU-HOU First Line: On the eastern way at the city of lo-yang Last Line: "joy and love never come back again." Subject(s): Aging; China - Early Period (to 200 B.c.); China - Middle Ages (600 B.c.- 618 A.d.); Trees | |||
On the Eastern Way at the city of Lo-yang At the edge of the road peach trees and plum-trees grow; On the two sides, -- flower matched by flower; Across the road, -- leaf touching leaf. A spring wind rises from the north-east; Flowers and leaves gently nod and sway. Up the road somebody's daughter comes Carrying a basket, to gather silkworms' food. [She sees the fruit trees in blossom and, forgetting about her silkworms, begins to pluck the branches.] With her slender hand she breaks a branch from the tree; The flowers fall, tossed and scattered in the wind. [The tree says:] "Lovely lady, I never did you harm; Why should you hate me and do me injury?" [The lady answers:] "At high autumn in the eighth and ninth moons When the white dew changes to hoar-frost, At the year's end the wind would have lashed your boughs, Your sweet fragrance could not have lasted long. Though in the autumn your leaves patter to the ground, When spring comes, your gay bloom returns. But in men's lives when their bright youth is spent Joy and love never come back again." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PROBLEM OF DESCRIBING TREES by ROBERT HASS THE GREEN CHRIST by ANDREW HUDGINS MIDNIGHT EDEN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN REFLECTION OF THE WOOD by LEONIE ADAMS |
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