In old days those who went to fight
    In three years had one year’s leave. 
    But in this war the soldiers are never changed;
    They must go on fighting till they die on the battle-field. 
    I thought of you, so weak and indolent,
    Hopelessly trying to learn to march and drill. 
    That a young man should ever come home again
    Seemed about as likely as that the sky should fall. 
    Since I got the news that you were coming back,
    Twice I have mounted to the high hall of your home. 
    I found your brother mending your horse’s stall;
    I found your mother sewing your new clothes. 
    I am half afraid; perhaps it is not true;
    Yet I never weary of watching for you on the road. 
    Each day I go out at the City Gate
    With a flask of wine, lest you should come thirsty. 
    Oh that I could shrink the surface of the World,
    So that suddenly I might find you standing at my side.

[67] THE SOUTH

    In the southern land many birds sing;
    Of towns and cities half are unwalled. 
    The country markets are thronged by wild tribes;
    The mountain-villages bear river-names. 
    Poisonous mists rise from the damp sands;
    Strange fires gleam through the night-rain. 
    And none passes but the lonely fisher of pearls. 
    Year by year on his way to the South Sea.

OU-YANG HSIU

[b. 1007; d. 1072]

[68] AUTUMN

Master Ou-yang was reading his books[1] at night when he heard a strange sound coming from the north-west.  He paused and listened intently, saying to himself:  “How strange, how strange!” First there was a pattering and rustling; but suddenly this broke into a great churning and crashing, like the noise of waves that wake the traveller at night, when wind and rain suddenly come; and where they lash the ship, there is a jangling and clanging as of metal against metal.

[1] The poem was written in 1052, when Ou-yang was finishing his “New History of the T`ang Dynasty.”

Or again, like the sound of soldiers going to battle, who march swiftly with their gags[2] between their teeth, when the captain’s voice cannot be heard, but only the tramp of horses and men moving.

[2] Pieces of wood put in their mouths to prevent their talking.

I called to my boy, bidding him go out and see what noise this could be.  The boy said:  “The moon and stars are shining; the Milky Way glitters in the sky.  Nowhere is there any noise of men.  The noise must be in the trees.”