The Jade Mountain/A Night in the Watch-Tower

by Du Fu

NIGHT IN THE WATCH-TOWER

While winter daylight shortens in the elemental scaleAnd snow and frost whiten the cold-circling night,Stark sounds the fifth-watch with a challenge of drum and bugle.. . . The stars and the River of Heaven pulse over the three mountains;I hear women in the distance, wailing after the battle;I see barbarian fishermen and woodcutters in the dawn.. . . Sleeping-Dragon, Plunging-Horse, are no generals now, they are dust—Hush for a moment, O tumult of the world.

(84, 49d)