Thoughts on a Winter Night
- Poetry of Yu Xuanji

With painful thoughts I reach for verse

to read aloud by the lamp;

I do not sleep the long night,

fearful of frigid bedding.

A sad wind rises in the leaves

filling the yard outside;

regrettably, the moon has set

beyond the window screen.

My hope for freedom has after all

never been quite fulfilled;

through ups and downs I see in vain

my true original will.

To live in hiding, do not choose

a place in easy reach;

evening sparrows twittering

circle the woods and screech.