More Translations from the Chinese/The Cranes

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Bai Juyi1973034More Translations from the Chinese — The Cranes1919Arthur Waley

[51] THE CRANES

[A.D. 830]

The western wind has blown but a few days;
Yet the first leaf already flies from the bough.
On the drying paths I walk in my thin shoes;
In the first cold I have donned my quilted coat.
Through shallow ditches the floods are clearing away;
Through sparse bamboos trickles a slanting light.
In the early dusk, down an alley of green moss,
The garden-boy is leading the cranes home.