Releasing a Migrant “Yen” (Wild Goose)

At Nine Rivers, in the tenth year, in winter,--heavy snow;The river-water covered with ice and the forests broken with theirload.The birds of the air, hungry and cold, went flying east and west;And with them flew a migrant “yen,” loudly clamouring for food.Among the snow it pecked for grass; and rested on the surface of theice:It tried with its wings to scale the sky; but its tired flight wasslow.The boys of the river spread a net and caught the bird as it flew;They took it in their hands to the city-market and sold it therealive.I that was once a man of the North am now an exile here:Bird and man, in their different kind, are each strangers in thesouth.And because the sight of an exiled bird wounded an exile’s heart,I paid your ransom and set you free, and you flew away to the clouds.Of all things I bid you, do not fly to the land of the north-westIn Huai-hsi there are rebel bands that have not been subdued;And a thousand thousand armoured men have long been camped in war.The official army and the rebel army have grown old in their oppositetrenches;The soldier’s rations have grown so small, they’ll be glad of evenyou.The brave boys, in their hungry plight, will shoot you and eat yourflesh;They will pluck from your body those long feathers and make them intoarrow-wings!