Fall Wind

chyōu fēng rù

Emperors and generals,

Like gangsters and their bosses,

Have a tendency to fall

Lachrymose, at least for poems,

Favorite tales, and folk songs.

Maybe with all that maiming

And killing other people,

Something bottles up in them,

And they like a good fiction

That excuses some weeping.

Certain themes—young love, old age,

Fall wind—really get to them.

Killers hate how age kills them,

Hate how fall wind means nothing.