The Last Day of the Year

[velotrain]

The year about to end

Is like a snake creeping in a field.

You have no sooner seen it

Than it has half disappeared.

It is gone and its trouble is gone with it.

It would be worse if you could catch it by its tail.

Why bother to try when it will do you no good?

The children are awake, they can’t sleep.

They sit up all night laughing and chattering.

The cocks do not cry to announce the dawn.

The watch do not beat on their drums.

Everybody stays up while the lamps burn low,

And goes out to watch the stars fade and set.

I hope next year will be better than last.

But I know it will be just the

Same old mistakes and mischances.

Maybe I will have accomplished

More next New Year’s Eve.

I should.  I am still young and full of confidence.

 

                                    Su Tung-p’o              1036-1101

                                    Translated by Kenneth Rexroth:

                                    One Hundred Poems From the Chinese

 

 

No longer young, but with some degree of confidence.

[miyakoji]

Very nice.  Some info on Su Tungpo / Su Shi:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Shi

[velotrain]

More translations by Rexroth, including from the Japanese:

 

http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/translations/