A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems/Separation
SEPARATION
Yesterday I heard that such-a-one was gone;
This morning they tell me that so-and-so is dead.
Of friends and acquaintances more than two-thirds
Have suffered change and passed to the Land of Ghosts.
Those that are gone I shall not see again;
They, alas, are for ever finished and done.
Those that are left,— where are they now?
They are all scattered,— a thousand miles away.
Those I have known and loved through all my life.
On the fingers of my hand — how many do I count?
Only the prefects of T'ung, Kuo and Li
And Fēng Province — just those four.[1]
Longing for each other we are all grown gray;
Through the Fleeting World rolled like a wave in the stream.
Alas &at the feasts and frolics of old days
Have withered and vanished, bringing us to this!
When shall we meet and drink a cup of wine
And laughing gaze into each other's eyes?
- ↑ Yüan Chēn [d. 831], Ts'ui Hsüan-liang [d. 833], Liu Yü-hsi [d. 842], and Li Chien [d. 821].