The wild winds weep, And the night is a-cold; Come hither, Sleep, And my griefs infold: But lo! the morning peeps Over the eastern steeps, And the rustling birds of dawn The earth do scorn.
Lo! to the vault Of paved heaven, With sorrow fraught My notes are driven: They strike the ear of night, Make weep the eyes of day; They make mad the roaring winds, And with tempests play.
Like a fiend in a cloud With howling woe, After night I do croud, And with night will go; I turn my back to the east, From whence comforts have increas'd; For light doth seize my brain With frantic pain.
I cut myself upon the thought of you And yet I come back to it again and again, A kind of fury makes me want to draw you out From the dimness of the present And set you sharply above me in a wheel of roses. Then, going obviously to inhale their fragrance, I touch the blade of you and cling upon it, And only when the blood runs out across my fingers Am I at all satisfied.
What a view -- Lying on one's back In a strange land, Seeing familiar skies, & Unfamiliar faces, And wondering what kind Of strange beast They take one for -- On one's back, In the churchyard Of a strange land.
Verdant orchid leaves of Spring; Cassia blooms bright in Autumn; Thriving plants, top to bottom. Festivals planned by their timings. Who knows the forest recluse -- Pleased with winds and winds with he. Plants have stems, branches, and roots Why beg a belle to pluck their fruits.
This is poem #2 of the 300 Tang Poems [唐诗三百首,] and is the second in a quartet of poems called 感遇 [Gan Yu.] The original poem in Simplified Chinese goes:
Tiger Riding for Beginners 