Sunset
Du Fu


Cow sheep move down slowly
Each self shut wicker door
Wind moon from clear night
River hill not homeland
Stone spring flow dark cliff
Grass dew drip autumn root
Head white lamp brightness inside
What need flower embers flourish
The cows and sheep are moving slowly down,
Each villager has shut his wicker gate.
The wind and moon disturb the clear night,
This landscape of rivers and hills is not my homeland.
A spring flows from the dark stone of a cliff,
The autumn dew drips on the grass's roots.
My white head is within the lamp's brightness,
What need for the flower to flourish so?


View Chinese text in traditional characters.

Other Chinese poems about Separation, Nature and Age.


Note: The flower of the last line can be interpreted both as Du Fu's own past achievements, and as a twisting of the candlewick said to foretell good fortune.