Mnemosyne

    It's autumn in the country I remember

    How warm a wind blew here about the ways！

    And shadows on the hillside lay to slumber¹

    During the long sun-sweetened summer-days.

    It's cold abroad the country I remember.

    The swallows veering² skimmed the golden grain

    At midday with a wing aslant³ and limber；

    And yellow cattle browsed⁴ upon the plain

    It's empty down the country I remember.

    I had a sister lovely in my sight：

    Her hair was dark， her eyes were very sombre；

    We sang together in the woods at night.

    It's lonely in the country I remember.

    The babble⁵ of our children fills my ears，

    And on our hearth⁶ I stare the perished ember

    To flames that show all starry⁷ thro' my tears.

    It's dark about the country I remember.

    There are the mountains where I lived. The path

    Is slushed with cattle-tracks and fallen timber，

    The stumps⁸ are twisted by the tempests' wrath⁹.

    But that I knew these places are my own，

    I'd ask how came such wretchedness to cumber¹⁰

    The earth， and I to people it alone.

    It rains across the country I remember