Autumn Song

Could any time be more beautiful than early Autumn, before the frosts come?  Yes, I say the same thing about flowery springtime and the first warm days, and still winter days with hungry birds and bare tree branches.  But there IS something about the bright blue skies and barely cool breezes of October here in the South.  I know elsewhere you must have frost and even snow by now, but here it stays just bright and cool until Halloween.  The locusts and crickets sing all day, and the sun has that autumnal slant.

Here is a poem for autumn.  The poem below was written around 500 AD, by an Indian poet named Kalidasa. The English translation is by Arthur W. Ryder (1877-1938).

AUTUMN
The autumn comes, a maiden fair
In slenderness and grace,
With nodding rice-stems in her hair
And lilies in her face.
In flowers of grasses she is clad;
And as she moves along,
Birds greet her with their cooing glad
Like bracelets' tinkling song.