Page:A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1919).djvu/84

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SONG

By Sung Tzŭ-hou [second century A. D.]

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,

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