Page:More Translations from the Chinese (Waley).djvu/78

 [43] THE PINE-TREES IN THE COURTYARD


 * the hall

The pine-trees grow in front of the steps, Irregularly scattered,—not in ordered lines.
 * Some are tall and some are low:

The tallest of them is six roods high;
 * The lowest but ten feet.
 * They are like wild things
 * And no one knows who planted them.

They touch the walls of my blue-tiled house; Their roots are sunk in the terrace of white sand. Morning and evening they are visited by the wind and moon; Rain or fine,—they are free from dust and mud. In the gales of autumn they whisper a vague tune; From the suns of summer they yield a cool shade. At the height of spring the fine evening rain Fills their leaves with a load of hanging pearls. At the year's end the time of great snow Stamps their branches with a fret of glittering jade. Of the Four Seasons each has its own mood; Among all the trees none is like another. Last year, when they heard I had bought this house, Neighbours mocked and the World called me mad— That a whole family of twice ten souls Should move house for the sake of a few pines! Now that I have come to them, what have they given me? They have only loosened the buckles of my care. Yet even so, they are "profitable friends," [74]