Li Po: Spring Rhapsodies: I. Delight

Once more Heaven bids the plough-star drive before the spring, and turn its handle to the east, Spring—the blue harmonies of tumultuous waters! The fair fragrance of orchid sprays. Climb and look out and beyond. At once the eye retains the whole immeasurable expanse of the sea, and the slenderest film of the clouds. The soul streams out in ecstasy. Tears! my tears are falling. Of the gentle pure breeze I sing—of the waves of Chang-lang are my songs Of lake Duntkhin are my dreams, and my sighs for the river-lands of Oyas and Oyan. What a lightness of health is in my soul! One with the spring-wafting of the wind, it soars away and flies I know not where. Yes! it soars, but whither I know not. And my thoughts are boundless. I am whelmed in a dream of this fairest of seasons, in a mood that dispels not. The whole plain heaves into bloom—what flowers! what sceneries! Ah! fragrance of sweet herbs, my love and grief are for you. Sorrow, a sharp-edged knife, is sheathed in my heart, p. 49 For these are the last of spring—the ending of spring's last days. Sadness of heart takes hold of me, and no light weariness. Away my thoughts! By the winding Khang, by the roaring rapids of Syan my plunging hands are hidden with fairy flowers—and still my thoughts have mastered me… Each year this picture is the same. Spring comes

—the flowers bloom. But lo, there is an end of them—and change comes over spring. Swiftly, swiftly the long river speeds away its waters. I follow with my gaze the flowing waves and in thought I pass with them to the east, to the very sea. Alas! ’tis even so with spring—it stays not with us once its time has come. Soon, too soon will Destiny send forth the breath of tottering age. Ah! that I cannot fling a long, long rope over the blue sky and bind with it the white orb of light as it rushes on to its setting!