The Jade Mountain/Staying at the General's Headquarters
STAYING AT THE GENERAL'S HEADQUARTERS
The autumn night is clear and cold in the lakka-trees of this courtyard.I am lying forlorn in the river-town. I watch my guttering candle.I hear the lonely notes of a bugle sounding through the dark.The moon is in mid-heaven, but there's no one to share it with me.My messengers are scattered by whirls of rain and sand.;City-gates are closed to a traveller; mountains are walls in my way—Yet, I who have borne ten years of pitiable existence,Find here a perch, a little branch, and am safe for this one night.