Time Must Have No Stop

Yamanoue Okura (660?–733?), "The impermanence of human life," tr. Geoffrey Bownas and Anthony Thwaite: We are helpless in this world. The years and months slip past Like a swift stream, which grasps and drags us down. A hundred pains pursue us, one by one. Girls, with their wrists clasped round With Chinese jewels, join hands And play their youth away. But time cannot be stopped, And when their youth is gone Their jet-black hair — black as fish's bowels — Turns white, like a hard frost. On their sun-browned, glowing faces, Wrinkles are etched — by whom? Boys, with their swords at their waists, Clutching the hunting bow, Mount their chestnut horses On saddles linen-spun, And ride on in their pride. But is their world eternal? He pushes back the door Where a girl sleeps within, Gropes to her side and lies Arm on her jewel arm. But how few are those nights Before, with stick at waist, He goes shunned and detested — The old are always so. We grudge life moving on But we have no redress. I…