Dead Reed Leave On The Cay Poem by East Sea Fairy Xing Yi

By LIU Guo Translated by East Sea Fairy

The withered leaves of reeds
spread all over on the cay.
The shallow cold water, which nothing impedes
flows soundlessly from the sand away.
Twenty years has passed in the twinkling of an eye without delay.
Today, I climb up again unto the south tower where we played to our delight.
So excited I'm that I stride toward it in a hurried way,
before the small boat under the willow tree is tied tight.
for it's several days away before we see the Mid-autumn moonlight.

Worn to the thread is the tattered Yellow Crane Dock.
Have my old friends ever come back, oh?
Before my eyes without view block,
lies barren and bleak the same hill and flow.
This sad scene adds endless woes to my old sorrow.
I have a heart to buy a jar of osmanthus-flavored wine bright
and take it unto the boat to enjoy a leisure row,
but I find that I've lost the main and might
which I had when we went boating twenty year ago quite.