366 CHINESE LITERATURE
A girl -within the inner rooms,
I mourn that spring is done, A skein of sorrow binds my heart,
and solace there is none. I pass into the garden,
and I turn to use my hoe, Treading Jer fallen glories
as I lightly come and go. There are willow-sprays and flowers of elm.
and these have scent enow, I care not if the peach and plum
are stripped from every bough. The peach-tree and the plum-tree too
next year may bloom again, But next year, in the inner rooms,
tell me, shall I remain ? By the third moon new fragrant nests
shall see the light of day, New swallows flit among the beams,
each on its thoughtless way. Next year once more they'll seek their food
among the painted flowers, But I may go, and beams may go,
and with them swallow bowers. Three hundred days and sixty make
a year, and therein lurk Daggers of wind and swords of frost
to do their cruel work. How long will last the fair fresh flower
which bright and brighter glows f One morn its petals float away,
but whither no one knows. Cay blooming buds attract the eye,
faded they're lost to sight j Oh, let me sadly bury them
beside these steps to-night ! Alone, unseen, I seize my hoe,
with many a bitter tearj They fall upon the naked stem
and stains of blood appear.
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