ليلة في الجناح / Night in the Pavilion

ليلة في الجناح / Night in the Pavilion

Year's end, yin and yang hasten the shortening daylight;

At the edge of the earth, frost and snow clear from the cold midnight sky.

At the fifth watch, drum and horn sounds are mournful and grand;

Above the Three Gorges, the starry river's reflection trembles and sways.

In the wilderness, weeping from a thousand—some texts read "several"—households is heard, news of war;

Songs of the barbarians, in several—some texts read "this"—places, rise from fishermen and woodcutters.

The crouching dragon and the leaping horse at last turn to yellow dust;

Human affairs and letters from friends, slowly, in lonely silence, drift away.