Thoughts of Old Time on the Chu River
- Poetry of Ma Dai

A cold light shines on the gathering dew,

As sunset fades beyond the southern mountains;

Trees echo with monkeys on the banks of Lake Dongting,

Where somebody is moving in an orchid-wood boat.

Marsh-lands are swollen wide with the moon,

While torrents are bent to the mountains' will;

And the vanished Queens of the Clouds leave me

Sad with autumn all night long.