Page:The works of Li Po - Obata.djvu/176

 104. THE BALLADS OF THE FOUR SEASONS

WINTER

The courier will depart on the morrow for the front. All night she sews a soldier's jacket.

Her fingers, plying the needle, are numb with cold;

Scarce can she hold the icy scissors.

At last the work is done; she sends it a long, long way,

Oh, how many days before it reaches him in Lin-tao?

Lin-tao, a town on the frontier of Tu-fan, whose war- like tribes had harassed the Chinese empire for centuries past.

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