Here in this spring

Here in this spring, stars float along the void; / Here in this ornamental winter / Down pelts the naked weather; / This summer buries a spring bird. // Symbols are selected from the years’ / Slow rounding of four seasons’ coasts, / In autumn teach three seasons’ fires / And four birds’ notes. // I should tell summer from the trees, the worms / Tell, if at all, the winter’s storms / Or the funeral of the sun; / I should learn spring by the cuckooing, / And the slug should teach me destruction. // A worm tells summer better than the clock, / The slug’s a living calendar of days; / What shall it tell me if a timeless insect / Says the world wears away?