A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems/On Board Ship: Reading Yüan Chēn's Poems
ON BOARD SHIP: READING YÜAN CHĒN'S POEMS
I take your poems in my hand and read them beside the candle;
The poems are finished: the candle is low: dawn not yet come.
With sore eyes by the guttering candle still I sit in the dark,
Listening to waves that, driven by the wind, strike the prow of the ship.