No more post-stops on the road —
we enter the capital.
River towns and mountain towns,
how many we passed through!
We'd meet people, rent a room,
though we didn't know their names;
on horseback, we would dash off poems
not knowing where we were.
On sand banks, returning wild geese
were forced down by the wind;
at stone weirs, fish would dive below
just as waters cleared.
The jeweled towers must be ahead,
beneath the vaulted sky:
let not the slightest wisp of cloud
bedeck the brilliant moon!