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The Further Bank

Let’s start

Which of these places would you like to visit? Why? Discuss in class.
life skill self-awareness

Let’s read the poem aloud.

I LONG TO GO over there to the further bank of the river,
Where those boats are tied to the bamboo poles in a line;

Where men cross over in their boats in the morning with

ploughs on their shoulders to till their far-away fields;
Where the cowherds make their lowing cattle swim across to
the riverside pasture;

Whence they all come back home in the evening, leaving
the jackals to howl in the island overgrown with weeds.

Mother, if you don’t mind, I should like to become
the boatman of the ferry when I am grown up.

till: (here) prepare and cultivate (land)
lowing: a deep sound made by cattle
pasture: land for grazing
ferry: a boat for transferring passengers/goods
over short distances regularly

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