Homesick

Fain are those waters to be free,
Leaving their spring to join the K'i.
So yearns my heart for thee, dear Wei
No day but there in thought I fly.
Here are my cousins, kind are they:
O, before these my plans I'll lay.

On leaving home I lodged in Tsi,
And drank the god-speed cup in Ni.
Maids, when their wedding trip they take,
Parents and brothers all forsake.
Yet let me go my aunts to greet;
Let me my elder sisters meet.

And, leaving here, I'd lodge in Kan,
Then drink the god-speed cup in Yen.
Oil me then well my axles, O!
Back in my carriage let me go.
Soon should I be in Wei; — but oh!
Were I not wrong in acting so?

Ah! — For that land of fertile streams
Long do I sigh in waking dreams.
So when I think of Siu and Ts'o,
Full is my heart, to overflow.
Drove I but forth to wander there,
Then were unbosomed all my care.