Reflections on the Past41
This is only one section of a long poem by Tao Tsien.
The sun went down and cloudless came the night,
A gentle zephyr breathed through moonlit skies;
And bevies of fair women thronged the Court,
The beauty of the starlight in their eyes.
With wine and singing swiftly flew the hours
Until the herald of the dawn appeared;
But when the music and the rapture ceased,
Deep sighs were heard and weird forebodings feared.
Such beauty even in the Halls of T’sin
As on this fateful night was seldom seen,—
A lustrous moon in fleecy clouds it shines!
A splendid flower amidst the foliage green!
How fair the groups of revellers—fair the scene!
But pleasures such as these must pass away!
How keen the raptures of those fleeting hours!
What of the burdens of the coming day?
Notes
41 This poem probably refers to the revelries of the Court at the end of the T’sin Dynasty 300-200 b.c., before it was overthrown by the founder of the Han Dynasty.