52 ANCIENT PERIOD
Rises above the rushes,
And chill sounds the voice
Of the wild ducks crying.
Poem of a Frontier Guard
Dialogue poems
Had I foreknown my sweet lord’s coming,
My garden, now so rank with wild weeds,
I had strewn it with pearls!
What use to me a house strewn with pearls?
The cottage hidden in wild weeds
Is enough, if I am with you.
Since I had shut the gate
And locked the door,
Whence did you, dear one, enter
To appear in my dream?
Though you had shut the gate
And locked the door,
I must have come to you in your dream
Through the hole cut by a thief.
Anonymous
Lament for old age
When winter is gone and spring comes,
New is the year, and new the month;
But man grows old.
All things are best when new;
But perchance with man
He alone is good who is old.
Anonymous
