62.

Landscape Painting

Rong Sun sent me a New Year’s card depicting an autumn scene and wrote a new-style poem to accompany it. Here, I turn it into an old-style poem.

In the depths of autumn, the leaves drop one by one,

as I hike alone along the city limits on my cane.

Trees throw their shadows on the lake,

where I look out for fishing boats.

The sparse woods set off the cloudless sky,

a sandspit blocks the waterflow.

Today seeds sown in spring and summer are in fruit,

but winter quickly brings the blooming to an end.