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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Arthur Waley, trans.

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

On Seeing Swallows in His Prison-cell

Arthur Waley, trans.

From “Chinese Poems”

Wang Tzu-tuan—Thirteenth Century

YOU laugh at my clumsiness in falling into the trap of disaster.

I sigh at your thoughtlessness in entering my round window.

The falling leaves are blown and soaked by the east wind and rain;

But you could have sheltered easily enough under the eaves of any roof.