Yesterday's World
Yesterday's world has turned to fade,
color to gray, and bowed its head down
to sleep in the oblivion of shade.
Gone is its armor and vanished its crown
to some lost place that none can find;
its kingdom is lost beneath an endless sea,
out of sight and so forever out of mind
except in our swiftly fading memory.
We were children once, though we played at games
as if we were adults, and made mistakes with flair;
we sparred with foes -- forgotten are their names --
and burned time without thought or care.
So are we all. The days will pass, and pass,
will vanish like the blazing grass,
all wasted in some unreasoned haste
until all days are past, with no more to waste.
Lu You's 'Wishing to Leave, Finding Rain'
The east wind burst with rain,
troubling the wanderer.
Along the road, fresh mud
is bursting from fine dust.
Flowers shut their eyes; willow close heavy eyes;
the spring's bright 'I' is lazy.
Who could know that even I
would be more lazy than bright spring?
Vesta
A man may worship this god or that, as he pleases;
devotion to this one or another, one may pursue;
but the one who seeks not Vesta to please
is not a man but a beast.
Who trespasses the grove of the Furies may recover;
who sullies the altar of Jupiter may repair;
but the one who harms the temple of Vesta
is reduced to the state of a beast.
To lay hands on a priest of Juno is grave;
it is folly to cross the king of the grove;
but those who desecrate a Virgin
will be hunted like the beast.
The nation unknowing of Zeus may prosper;
gods may to the godless tribes provide;
but the folk who do not respect the Hearth
are merely herds of beasts.
