Autumn Meditations (2)
Du Fu


Kui prefecture lonely wall set sun slant
Every rely the Plough gaze capital city
Hear ape real fall three sound tear
Sent on mission vain follow eight month raft
Picture ministry incense stove apart hidden pillow
Mountain tower white battlements hide sad reed whistle
Ask look stone on creeper moon
Already reflect islet before rushes reeds flowers
Over Kuizhou's lonely wall, the setting sun slants,
Every day I follow the Plough to look to the capital city.
I hear an ape; the third call really makes tears fall,
Undertaking a mission, in vain I follow the eighth month raft.
The muralled ministry's incense stove is far from my hidden pillow,
The mountain tower's white battlements hide the sad reed flutes.
Just look at the moonlight on the creepers that cover the stones,
Already in front of the islet, the rushes and reed flowers shine!


View Chinese text in traditional characters.

Other Chinese poems about Autumn.

Notes: There was a tradition that travellers in the gorges would weep on hearing an ape cry three times. Another story told of a raft which appeared every eighth month and took a man to the river of heaven (the Milky Way).