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 Feng Province -- just those four. Longing for each other we are all grown gray; Through the Fleeting World rolled like a wave in the stream. Alas that 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? |