Barely fifty, but already my face is
old, my hair white.
I travelled this whole coast fleeing
from The State.
Rough cloth saved my shivering
bones
As I roamed the awful cold.
Thus began the years of my
disease.
Everywhere the people were mud and
ashes.
Between heaven and earth,
There’s nowhere a body is
safe.
We may never find the roads back
home.
We weep our eyes dry in the
river.
— Tu Fu, ‘Running From Trouble’, 8th
Century AD
