Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/169

 (2.) " A petal falls ! the spring begins to fail,

And my heart saddens ivith the growing gale. Come then, ere autumn spoils bestrew the ground^ Do not forget to pass the wine-cup round. Kingfishers build where man once laughed elate, And now stone dragons guard his graveyard gate! Who follows pleasure, he alone is wise; Why waste our life in deeds of high emprise f"

(3.) " My home is girdled by a limpid stream,

And there in summer days life's movements fause t Save where some swallow flits from beam to beam, And the wild sea-gull near and nearer draws.

" The goodwife rules a paper board for chess ; The children beat a fish-hook out of wire ; My ailments call for physic more or less,

What else should this poor frame of mine require?*

(4.) "Alone I wandered o'er the hills

to seek the hermifs den, While sounds of chopping rang around

the fores fs leafy glen. I passed on ice across the brook,

which had not ceased tofreeze. As the slanting rays of afternoon

shot sparkling through the trees.

" I found he did not joy to gloat

der fetid wealth by night, But, far from taint, to watch the deer

in the golden morning light. . . . My mind was clear at coming;

but now I've lost my guide, And rudderless my little bark

is drifting with the tide ! "

(5.) " From the Court every eve to the pawnshop I pass.

To come back from the river the drunkest of men; As of:en as not I'm in debt for my glass j Well, few of us live to be threescore and ten.

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