Chapter 33 Autumn: Funeral Song
Autumn: Funeral Song
1
The sun loses its warmth, the wind howls bitterly,
The dry tree sighs, the pale flower dies,
a year will run out,
Lying on her death bed - the earth, covered with dead leaves
Surrounded one after another.
Come on, come out, season,
From November to May,
put on mournful attire
To mourn the cold year,
No longer guarding her cemetery like an erratic ghost.
2
The dreary rain is flying, the shrunken larva is wriggling,
All for the dying year: the river fills, and the thunder
keep wailing;
The happy swallow flew away, and the lizard returned
in their holes;
Come on, come out, season,
Let the bright sisters play;
Dressed in white and black and gray,
Follow the dead year,
In order to make the cemetery green, I shed tears again.
1820
Translated by Cha Liangzheng