103. THE BALLADS OF THE FOUR SEASONS
AUTUMN
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��The moon is above the city of Chang-an, From ten thousand houses comes the sound of cloth- pounding; J*** The sad autumn wind blows, and there is no end To my thought of you beyond the Jewel Gate Pass. When will the barbarian foe be vanquished, And you, my beloved, return from the far battlefield?
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��Cloth-pounding is the ironing part in the old-fashioned Chinese laundering process. On account of the hardness of the wooden stand and mallet employed for it, the pounding produces a shrill metallic sound. Women working late, and their mallets clanging through the night, have long been a popular theme for poets.
In the present poem the situation is pathetic since from the ten thousand houses, where women are work- ing late in the night, men have gone to the far battle front.
The Jewel Gate Pass, is located at the western ex- tremity of Kansu province.
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