night in the pavilion
at year’s dusk, Yin & Yang rush brief daylight to dark
here at sky’s edge, frost then snow then clear bitter night
fifth watch drum & trumpet ring out rousing, tragic:
above Three Gorges the galaxy’s shadow trembles
keening in fields: how many grieve men cut down in battle?
songs in strange tongues: here & there fishermen, woodsmen rising
Leaping Horse, Crouching Dragon: heroes, now yellow earth—
word of human affairs vanishes into silence
Jack Hayes
© 2015
based on Du Fu: 閣夜
gé yè
Acknowledgment: Sheila Graham-Smith for her major contributions in research & editing
Image links to its source on Wiki Commons
“Soldiers of the teracotta army in pit 1. Xian, China.”: photograph by Hans A. Rosbach, who makes it available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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