Twenty men crossing a bridge，

    Into a village，

    Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges，

    Into twenty villages，

    Or one man

    Crossing a single bridge into a village.

    This is old song

    That will not declare itself . . .

    Twenty men crossing a bridge，

    Into a village，

    Are

    Twenty men crossing a bridge

    Into a village.

    That will not declare itself

    Yet is certain as meaning . . .

    The boots of the men clump¹

    On the boards of the bridge.

    The first white wall of the village

    Rises through fruit-trees.

    Of what was it I was thinking？

    So the meaning escapes.

    The first white wall of the village . . .

    The fruit-trees . . .