Page:The works of Li Po - Obata.djvu/127

 66. THE OLD DUST

The living is a passing traveler;

The dead, a man come home. ~iz*

One brief journey betwixt heaven and earth, ^

Then, alas! we are the same old dust of ten thousand ages.

The rabbit in the moon pounds the medicine in vain;

Fu-sang, the tree of immortality, has crumbled to kin- dling wood.

Man dies, his white bones are dumb without a word

When the green pines feel the coming of the spring.

Looking back, I sigh; looking before, I sigh again.

What is there to prize in the life's vaporous glory %

��According to Chinese folklore there is a rabbit in the ,moon, which is pounding the elixir of life.

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