A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY
CHINESE POEMS
TRANSLATED BY
ARTHUR WALEY
[Illustration]
LONDON
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD.
1918
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN.
CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
PRELIMINARY NOTE
In making this book I have tried to avoid poems which have been
translated before. A hundred and forty of those I have chosen have not
been translated by any one else. The remaining thirty odd I have
included in many cases because the previous versions were full of
mistakes; in others, because the works in which they appeared are no
longer procurable. Moreover, they are mostly in German, a language with
which my readers may not all be acquainted.
With some hesitation I have included literal versions of six poems
(three of the “Seventeen Old Poems,” “Autumn Wind,” “Li Fu-jēn,” and “On
the Death of his Father”) already skilfully rhymed by Professor Giles in
“Chinese Poetry in English Verse.” They were too typical to omit; and a
comparison of the two renderings may be of interest. Some of these
translations have appeared in the “Bulletin of the School of Oriental
Studies,” in the “New Statesman,” in the “Little Review” (Chicago), and
in “Poetry” (Chicago).
CONTENTS
PART I
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 3
THE METHOD OF TRANSLATION 19
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 21
CHAPTER I:
Battle 23
The Man-Wind and the Woman-Wind 24
Master Tēng-t’u 26
The Orphan 27
The Sick Wife 29
Cock-Crow Song 30
The Golden Palace 31
“Old Poem” 32
Meeting in the Road 32
Fighting South of the Castle 33
The Eastern Gate 34
Old and New 35
South of the Great Sea 35
The Other Side of the Valley 36
Oaths of Friendship 37
Burial Songs 38
Seventeen Old Poems 39-48
The Autumn Wind 48
Li Fu-jēn 49
Song of Snow-white Heads 50
To his Wife 51
Li Ling 52
Lament of Hsi-chün 53
Ch’in Chia 53
Ch’in Chia’s Wife’s Reply 54
Song 55
CHAPTER II:
Satire on Paying Calls in August 57
On the Death of his Father 58
The Campaign against Wu 59
The Ruins of Lo-yang 60
The Cock-fight 61
A Vision 62
The Curtain of the Wedding Bed 63
Regret 63
Taoist Song 64
A Gentle Wind 64
Woman 65
Day Dreams 66
The Scholar in the Narrow Street 66
The Desecration of the Han Tombs 67
Bearer’s Song 68
The Valley Wind 69
CHAPTER III:
Poems by T’ao Ch’ien 71-79
CHAPTER IV:
Inviting Guests 81
Climbing a Mountain 81
Sailing Homeward 82
Five “Tzŭ-yeh” Songs 83
The Little Lady of Ch’ing-hsi 84
Plucking the Rushes 84
Ballad of the Western Island in the
North Country 84
Song 86
Song of the Men of Chin-ling 86
The Scholar Recruit 87
The Red Hills 87
Dreaming of a Dead Lady 88
The Liberator 89
Lo-yang 89
Winter Night 90
The Rejected Wife 90
People hide their Love 91
The Ferry 91
The Waters of Lung-t’ou 92
Flowers and Moonlight on the
Spring River 92
Tchirek Song 93
CHAPTER V:
Business Men 95
Tell me now 95
On Going to a Tavern 96
Stone Fish Lake 96
Civilization 97
A Protest in the Sixth Year of
Ch’ien Fu 97
On the Birth of his Son 98
The Pedlar of Spells 98
Boating in Autumn 99
The Herd-boy 99
How I sailed on the Lake till I came
to the Easter Stream 100
A Seventeenth-century Chinese Poem 100
PART II
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 105
BY PO CHÜ-I:
An Early Levée 115
Being on Duty all night in the
Palace and dreaming of the
Hsien-yu Temple 116
Passing T’ien-mēn Street in Ch’ang-an
and seeing a distant View of
Chung-nan Mountain 116
The Letter 117
Rejoicing at the Arrival of Ch’ēn
Hsiung 118
Golden Bells 119
Remembering Golden Bells 120
Illness 120
The Dragon of the Black Pool 121
The Grain-tribute 123
The People of Tao-chou 123
The Old Harp 125
The Harper of Chao 125
The Flower Market 126
The Prisoner 127
The Chancellor’s Gravel-drive 131
The Man who Dreamed of Fairies 132
Magic 134
The Two Red Towers 135
The Charcoal-seller 137
The Politician 138
The Old Man with the Broken Arm 139
Kept waiting in the Boat at Chiu-k’ou
Ten Days by an adverse Wind 142
On Board Ship: Reading Yüan Chēn’s
Poems 142
Arriving at Hsün-yang 143
Madly Singing in the Mountains 144
Releasing a migrant “Yen” (wild Goose) 145
To a Portrait Painter who desired him
to sit 146
Separation 147
Having climbed to the topmost Peak of
the Incense-burner Mountain 148
Eating Bamboo-shoots 149
The Red Cockatoo 149
After Lunch 150
Alarm at first entering the Yang-tze
Gorges 150
On being removed from Hsün-yang and
sent to Chung-chou 151
Planting Flowers on the Eastern
Embankment 152
Children 153
Pruning Trees 154
Being visited by a Friend during
Illness 155
On the way to Hangchow: Anchored on
the River at Night 155
Stopping the Night at Jung-yang 156
The Silver Spoon 156
The Hat given to the Poet by Li Chien 157
The Big Rug 157
After getting Drunk, becoming Sober in
the Night 158
Realizing the Futility of Life 158
Rising Late and Playing with A-ts’ui,
aged Two 159
On a Box containing his own Works 160
On being Sixty 161
Climbing the Terrace of Kuan-yin and
looking at the City 162
Climbing the Ling Ying Terrace and
looking North 162
Going to the Mountains with a little
Dancing Girl, aged Fifteen 163
Dreaming of Yüan Chēn 163
A Dream of Mountaineering 164
Ease 165
On hearing someone sing a Poem by
Yüan Chēn 165
The Philosophers 166
Taoism and Buddhism 167
Last Poem 168
PART I
INTRODUCTION
PRINCIPAL CHINESE DYNASTIES
Han, 206 B.C.--A.D. 220.
Wei, 220-264.
Chin, 265-419.
(Northern Wei, ruled over the North of China, 386-532.)
Liang, 502-556.
Sui, 589-618.
T’ang, 618-905.
Sung, 960-1278.
Yüan (Mongols), 1260-1341.
Ming, 1368-1640.
Ch’ing (Manchus), 1644-1912.
THE LIMITATIONS OF CHINESE LITERATURE
Those who wish to assure themselves that they will lose nothing by
ignoring Chinese literature, often ask the question: “Have the Chinese a
Homer, an Aeschylus, a Shakespeare or Tolstoy?” The answer must be that
China has no epic and no dramatic literature of importance. The novel
exists and has merits, but never became the instrument of great writers.
Her philosophic literature knows no mean between the traditionalism of
Confucius and the nihilism of Chuang-tzŭ. In mind, as in body, the
Chinese were for the most part torpid mainlanders. Their thoughts set
out on no strange quests and adventures, just as their ships discovered
no new continents. To most Europeans the momentary flash of Athenian
questioning will seem worth more than all the centuries of Chinese
assent.
Yet we must recognize that for thousands of years the Chinese maintained
a level of rationality and tolerance that the West might well envy. They
had no Index, no Inquisition, no Holy Wars. Superstition has indeed
played its part among them; but it has never, as in Europe, been
perpetually dominant. It follows from the limitations of Chinese thought
that the literature of the country should excel in reflection rather
than in speculation. That this is particularly true of its poetry will
be gauged from the present volume. In the poems of Po Chü-i no close
reasoning or philosophic subtlety will be discovered; but a power of
candid reflection and self-analysis which has not been rivalled in the
West.
Turning from thought to emotion, the most conspicuous feature of
European poetry is its pre-occupation with love. This is apparent not
only in actual “love-poems,” but in all poetry where the personality of
the writer is in any way obtruded. The poet tends to exhibit himself in
a _romantic_ light; in fact, to recommend himself as a lover.
The Chinese poet has a tendency different but analogous. He recommends
himself not as a lover, but as a friend. He poses as a person of
infinite leisure (which is what we should most like our friends to
possess) and free from worldly ambitions (which constitute the greatest
bars to friendship). He would have us think of him as a boon companion,
a great drinker of wine, who will not disgrace a social gathering by
quitting it sober.
To the European poet the relation between man and woman is a thing of
supreme importance and mystery. To the Chinese, it is something
commonplace, obvious--a need of the body, not a satisfaction of the
_emotions_. These he reserves entirely for friendship.
Accordingly we find that while our poets tend to lay stress on
physical courage and other qualities which normal women admire,
Po Chü-i is not ashamed to write such a poem as “Alarm at entering
the Gorges.” Our poets imagine themselves very much as Art has portrayed
them--bare-headed and wild-eyed, with shirts unbuttoned at the neck as
though they feared that a seizure of emotion might at any minute
suffocate them. The Chinese poet introduces himself as a timid recluse,
“Reading the Book of Changes at the Northern Window,” playing chess with
a Taoist priest, or practising caligraphy with an occasional visitor.
If “With a Portrait of the Author” had been the rule in the Chinese
book-market, it is in such occupations as these that he would be shown;
a neat and tranquil figure compared with our lurid frontispieces.
It has been the habit of Europe to idealize love at the expense of
friendship and so to place too heavy a burden on the relation of man and
woman. The Chinese erred in the opposite direction, regarding their
wives and concubines simply as instruments of procreation. For sympathy
and intellectual companionship they looked only to their friends. But
these friends were bound by no such tie as held women to their masters;
sooner or later they drifted away to frontier campaigns, remote
governorships, or country retirement. It would not be an exaggeration to
say that half the poems in the Chinese language are poems of parting or
separation.
Readers of these translations may imagine that the culture represented
by Po Chü-i extended over the whole vast confines of China. This would,
I think, be an error. Culture is essentially a metropolitan product.
Chü-i was as much _dépaysé_ at a provincial town as Charles Lamb would
have been at Botany Bay. But the system of Chinese bureaucracy tended
constantly to break up the literary coteries which formed at the
capitals, and to drive the members out of the little corner of Shensi
and Honan which to them was “home.”
It was chiefly economic necessity which forced the poets of China into
the meshes of bureaucracy--backed by the Confucian insistence on public
service. To such as were landowners there remained the alternative of
agricultural life, arduous and isolated.
The poet, then, usually passed through three stages of existence. In the
first we find him with his friends at the capital, drinking, writing,
and discussing: burdened by his office probably about as much as Pepys
was burdened by his duties at the Admiralty. Next, having failed to
curry favour with the Court, he is exiled to some provincial post,
perhaps a thousand miles from anyone he cares to talk to. Finally,
having scraped together enough money to buy husbands for his daughters,
he retires to a small estate, collecting round him the remnants of those
with whom he had shared the “feasts and frolics of old days.”
I have spoken hitherto only of poets. But the poetess occupies a place
of considerable importance in the first four centuries of our era,
though the classical period (T’ang and Sung) produced no great woman
writer. Her theme varies little; she is almost always a “rejected wife,”
cast adrift by her lord or sent back to her home. Probably her father
would be unable to buy her another husband and there was no place for
unmarried women in the Chinese social system. The moment, then, which
produced such poems was one of supreme tragedy in a woman’s life.
Love-poetry addressed by a man to a woman ceases after the Han dynasty;
but a conventional type of love-poem, in which the poet (of either sex)
speaks in the person of a deserted wife or concubine, continues to be
popular. The theme appears to be almost an obsession with the T’ang and
Sung poets. In a vague way, such poems were felt to be allegorical. Just
as in the Confucian interpretation of the love-poems in the Odes (see
below) the woman typifies the Minister, and the lover the Prince, so in
those classical poems the poet in a veiled way laments the thwarting of
his own public ambitions. Such tortuous expression of emotion did not
lead to good poetry.
The “figures of speech,” devices such as metaphor, simile, and play on
words, are used by the Chinese with much more restraint than by us.
“Metaphorical epithets” are occasionally to be met with; waves, for
example, might perhaps be called “angry.” But in general the adjective
does not bear the heavy burden which our poets have laid upon it. The
Chinese would call the sky “blue,” “gray,” or “cloudy,” according to
circumstances; but never “triumphant” or “terror-scourged.”
The long Homeric simile, introduced for its own sake or to vary the
monotony of narrative, is unknown to Chinese poetry. Shorter similes are
sometimes found, as when the half-Chinese poet Altun compares the sky
over the Mongolian steppe with the “walls of a tent”; but nothing could
be found analogous to Mr. T. S. Eliot’s comparison of the sky to a
“patient etherized on a table.” Except in popular poetry, puns are rare;
but there are several characters which, owing to the wideness of their
import, are used in a way almost equivalent to play on words.
Classical allusion, always the vice of Chinese poetry, finally destroyed
it altogether. In the later periods (from the fourteenth century
onwards) the use of elegant synonyms also prevailed. I have before me a
“gradus” of the kind which the later poet used as an aid to composition.
The moon should be called the “Silver Dish,” “Frozen Wheel,” or “Golden
Ring.” Allusions may in this connection be made to Yü Liang, who rode to
heaven on the crescent moon; to the hermit T’ang, who controlled the
genius of the New Moon, and kept him in his house as a candle--or to any
other of some thirty stories which are given. The sun may be called “The
Lantern-Dragon,” the “Crow in Flight,” the “White Colt,” etc.
Such were the artificialities of later Chinese poetry.
TECHNIQUE
Certain elements are found, but in varying degree, in all human speech.
It is difficult to conceive of a language in which rhyme, stress-accent,
and tone-accent would not to some extent occur. In all languages some
vowel-sounds are shorter than others and, in certain cases, two
consecutive words begin with the same sound. Other such characteristics
could be enumerated, but for the purposes of poetry it is these elements
which man has principally exploited.
English poetry has used chiefly rhyme, stress, and alliteration. It is
doubtful if tone has ever played a part; a conscious use has
sporadically been made of quantity. Poetry naturally utilizes the most
marked and definite characteristics of the language in which it is
written. Such characteristics are used consciously by the poet; but less
important elements also play their part, often only in a negative way.
Thus the Japanese actually avoid rhyme; the Greeks did not exploit it,
but seem to have tolerated it when it occurred accidentally.
The expedients consciously used by the Chinese before the sixth century
were rhyme and length of line. A third element, inherent in the
language, was not exploited before that date, but must always have been
a factor in instinctive considerations of euphony. This element was
“tone.”
Chinese prosody distinguishes between two tones, a “flat” and a
“deflected.” In the first the syllable is enunciated in a level manner:
the voice neither rises nor sinks. In the second, it (1) rises, (2)
sinks, (3) is abruptly arrested. These varieties make up the Four Tones
of Classical Chinese.[1]
[1] Not to be confused with the Four Tones of the Mandarin dialect, in
which the old names are used to describe quite different enunciations.
The “deflected” tones are distinctly more emphatic, and so have a faint
analogy to our stressed syllables. They are also, in an even more remote
way, analogous to the long vowels of Latin prosody. A line ending with a
“level” has consequently to some extent the effect of a “feminine
ending.” Certain causes, which I need not specify here, led to an
increasing importance of “tone” in the Chinese language from the fifth
century onwards. It was natural that this change should be reflected in
Chinese prosody. A certain Shēn Yo (A.D. 441-513) first propounded the
laws of tone-succession in poetry. From that time till the eighth
century the _Lü-shih_ or “strictly regulated poem” gradually evolved.
But poets continued (and continue till to-day), side by side with their
_lü-shih_, to write in the old metre which disregards tone, calling such
poems _Ku shih_, “old poems.” Previous European statements about
Chinese prosody should be accepted with great caution. Writers have
attempted to define the _lü-shih_ with far too great precision.
The Chinese themselves are apt to forget that T’ang poets seldom obeyed
the laws designed in later school-books as essential to classical
poetry; or, if they notice that a verse by Li Po does not conform, they
stigmatize it as “irregular and not to be imitated.”
The reader will infer that the distinction between “old poems” and
irregular _lü-shih_ is often arbitrary. This is certainly the case; I
have found the same poem classified differently in different native
books. But it is possible to enumerate certain characteristics which
distinguish the two kinds of verse. I will attempt to do so; but not
till I have discussed _rhyme_, the other main element in Chinese
prosody. It would be equally difficult to define accurately the
difference between the couplets of Pope and those of William Morris. But
it would not be impossible, by pointing out certain qualities of each,
to enable a reader to distinguish between the two styles.
_Rhyme._--Most Chinese syllables ended with a vowel or nasal sound. The
Chinese rhyme was in reality a vowel assonance. Words in different
consonants rhymed so long as the vowel-sound was exactly the same. Thus
_ywet_, “moon,” rhymed with _sek_, “beauty.” During the classical period
these consonant endings were gradually weakening, and to-day, except in
the south, they are wholly lost. It is possible that from very early
times final consonants were lightly pronounced.
The rhymes used in _lü-shih_ were standardized in the eighth century,
and some of them were no longer rhymes to the ear in the Mandarin
dialect. To be counted as a rhyme, two words must have exactly the same
vowel-sound. Some of the distinctions then made are no longer audible
to-day; the sub-divisions therefore seem arbitrary. Absolute homophony
is also counted as rhyme, as in French. It is as though we should make
_made_ rhyme with _maid_.
I will now attempt to distinguish between _Ku-shih_ (old style) and
_Lü-shih_ (new style).
_Ku-shih (Old Style)._
(_a_) According to the investigations of Chu Hua, an eighteenth century
critic, only thirty-four rhymes were used. They were, indeed, assonances
of the roughest kind.
(_b_) “Deflected” words are used for rhyming as freely as “flat” words.
(_c_) Tone-arrangement. The tones were disregarded. (Lines can be found
in pre-T’ang poems in which five deflected tones occur in succession, an
arrangement which would have been painful to the ear of a T’ang writer
and would probably have been avoided by classical poets even when using
the old style.)
_Lü-shih (New Style)._
(_a_) The rhymes used are the “106” of modern dictionaries (not those of
the Odes, as Giles states). Rhymes in the flat tone are preferred. In a
quatrain the lines which do not rhyme must end on the opposite tone to
that of the rhyme. This law is absolute in _Lü-shih_ and a tendency in
this direction is found even in _Ku-shih_.
(_b_) There is a tendency to antithetical arrangement of tones in the
two lines of a couplet, especially in the last part of the lines.
(_c_) A tendency for the tones to go in _pairs_, _e.g._ (A = flat, B =
deflected): AA BBA or ABB AA, rather than in _threes_. Three like tones
only come together when divided by a “cesura,” _e.g._, the line BB / AAA
would be avoided, but not the line BBAA / ABB.
(_d_) Verbal parallelism in the couplet, _e.g._:
After long illness one first realizes that seeking medicines is
a mistake;
In one’s decaying years one begins to repent that one’s study of
books was deferred.
This device, used with some discretion in T’ang, becomes an irritating
trick in the hands of the Sung poets.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF CHINESE POETRY
_The Odes._--From the songs current in his day Confucius (551-479 B.C.)
chose about three hundred which he regarded as suitable texts for his
ethical and social teaching. Many of them are eulogies of good rulers or
criticisms of bad ones. Out of the three hundred and five still extant
only about thirty are likely to interest the modern reader. Of these
half deal with war and half with love. Many translations exist, the best
being those of Legge in English and of Couvreur in French. There is
still room for an English translation displaying more sensitivity to
word-rhythm than that of Legge. It should not, I think, include more
than fifty poems. But the Odes are essentially _lyric_ poetry, and their
beauty lies in effects which cannot be reproduced in English. For that
reason I have excluded them from this book; nor shall I discuss them
further here, for full information will be found in the works of Legge
or Couvreur.
_Elegies of the Land of Ch’u._--We come next to Ch’ü Yüan (third century
B.C.) whose famous poem “Li Sao,” or “Falling into Trouble,” has also
been translated by Legge. It deals, under a love-allegory, with the
relation between the writer and his king. In this poem, sex and politics
are curiously interwoven, as we need not doubt they were in Chü Yüan’s
own mind. He affords a striking example of the way in which abnormal
mentality imposes itself. We find his followers unsuccessfully
attempting to use the same imagery and rhapsodical verbiage, not
realizing that these were, as De Goncourt would say, the product of
their master’s _propre névrosité_.
“The Battle,” his one thoroughly intelligible poem, has hitherto been
only very imperfectly translated. A literal version will be found on p.
23.
His nephew Sung Yü was no servile imitator. In addition to “elegies” in
the style of the Li Sao, he was the author of many “Fu” or descriptive
prose-poems, unrhymed but more or less metrical.
_The Han Dynasty._--Most of the Han poems in this book were intended to
be sung. Many of them are from the official song-book of the dynasty and
are known as Yo Fu or Music Bureau poems, as distinct from _shih_, which
were recited. Ch’in Chia’s poem and his wife’s reply (p. 54) are both
_shih_; but all the rest might, I think, be counted as songs.
The Han dynasty is rich in Fu (descriptions), but none of them could be
adequately translated. They are written in an elaborate and florid style
which recalls Apuleius or Lyly.
_The Chin Dynasty._
(1) _Popular Songs_ (Songs of Wu). The popular songs referred to the Wu
(Soochow) district and attributed to the fourth century may many of
them have been current at a much earlier date. They are slight in
content and deal with only one topic. They may, in fact, be called
“Love-epigrams.” They find a close parallel in the _coplas_ of Spain,
_cf._:
_El candil se esta apagando,
La alcuza no tiene aceite--
No te digo que te vayas, ...
No te digo que te quedes._
The brazier is going out,
The lamp has no more oil--
I do not tell you to go, ...
I do not tell you to stay.
A Han song, which I will translate quite literally, seems to be the
forerunner of the Wu songs.
On two sides of river, wedding made:
Time comes; no boat.
Lusting heart loses hope
Not seeing what-it-desires.
(2) _The Taoists._--Confucius inculcated the duty of public service.
Those to whom this duty was repulsive found support in Taoism, a system
which denied this obligation. The third and fourth centuries A.D.
witnessed a great reaction against state service. It occurred to the
intellectuals of China that they would be happier growing vegetables in
their gardens than place-hunting at Nanking. They embraced the theory
that “by bringing himself into harmony with Nature” man can escape every
evil. Thus Tao (Nature’s Way) corresponds to the Nirvana of Buddhism,
and the God of Christian mysticism.
They reduced to the simplest standard their houses, apparel, and food;
and discarded the load of book-learning which Confucianism imposed on
its adherents.
The greatest of these recluses was T’ao Ch’ien (A.D. 365-427), twelve of
whose poems will be found on p. 71, _seq._ Something of his philosophy
may be gathered from the poem “Substance, Shadow, and Spirit” (p. 73),
his own views being voiced by the last speaker. He was not an original
thinker, but a great poet who reflects in an interesting way the outlook
of his time.
_Liang and Minor Dynasties._--This period is known as that of the
“Northern and Southern Courts.” The north of China was in the hands of
the Tungusie Tartars, who founded the Northern Wei dynasty--a name
particularly familiar, since it is the habit of European collectors to
attribute to this dynasty any sculpture which they believe to be earlier
than T’ang. Little poetry was produced in the conquered provinces; the
Tartar emperors, though they patronized Buddhist art, were incapable of
promoting literature. But at Nanking a series of emperors ruled, most of
whom distinguished themselves either in painting or poetry. The Chinese
have always (and rightly) despised the literature of this period, which
is “all flowers and moonlight.” A few individual writers, such as Pao
Chao, stand out as exceptions. The Emperor Yüan-ti--who hacked his way
to the throne by murdering all other claimants, including his own
brother--is typical of the period both as a man and as a poet. A
specimen of his sentimental poetry will be found on p. 90. When at last
forced to abdicate, he heaped together 200,000 books and pictures; and,
setting fire to them, exclaimed: “The culture of the Liang dynasty
perishes with me.”
_T’ang._--I have already described the technical developments of poetry
during this dynasty. Form was at this time valued far above content.
“Poetry,” says a critic, “should draw its materials from the Han and Wei
dynasties.” With the exception of a few reformers, writers contented
themselves with clothing old themes in new forms. The extent to which
this is true can of course only be realized by one thoroughly familiar
with the earlier poetry.
In the main, T’ang confines itself to a narrow range of stock subjects.
The _mise-en-scène_ is borrowed from earlier times. If a battle-poem be
written, it deals with the campaigns of the Han dynasty, not with
contemporary events. The “deserted concubines” of conventional
love-poetry are those of the Han Court. Innumerable poems record
“Reflections on Visiting a Ruin,” or on “The Site of an Old City,” etc.
The details are ingeniously varied, but the sentiments are in each case
identical. Another feature is the excessive use of historical allusions.
This is usually not apparent in rhymed translations, which evade such
references by the substitution of generalities. Poetry became the medium
not for the expression of a poet’s emotions, but for the display of his
classical attainments. The great Li Po is no exception to this rule.
Often where his translators would make us suppose he is expressing a
fancy of his own, he is in reality skilfully utilizing some poem by T’ao
Ch’ien or Hsieh Ti’ao. It is for his versification that he is admired,
and with justice. He represents a reaction against the formal prosody of
his immediate predecessors. It was in the irregular song-metres of his
_ku-shih_ that he excelled. In such poems as the “Ssech’uan Road,” with
its wild profusion of long and short lines, its cataract of exotic
verbiage, he aimed at something nearer akin to music than to poetry. Tu
Fu, his contemporary, occasionally abandoned the cult of “abstract
form.” Both poets lived through the most tragic period of Chinese
history. In 755 the Emperor’s Turkic favourite, An Lu-shan, revolted
against his master. A civil war followed, in which China lost thirty
million men. The dynasty was permanently enfeebled and the Empire
greatly curtailed by foreign incursions. So ended the “Golden Age” of
Ming Huang. Tu Fu, stirred by the horror of massacres and conscriptions,
wrote a series of poems in the old style, which Po Chü-i singles out for
praise. One of them, “The Press-gang,” is familiar in Giles’s
translation. Li Po, meanwhile, was writing complimentary poems on the
Emperor’s “Tour in the West”--a journey which was in reality a
precipitate flight from his enemies.
_Sung._--In regard to content the Sung poets show even less originality
than their predecessors. Their whole energy was devoted towards
inventing formal restrictions. The “tz’ŭ” developed, a species of song
in lines of irregular length, written in strophes, each of which must
conform to a strict pattern of tones and rhymes. The content of the
“tz’ŭ” is generally wholly conventional. Very few have been translated;
and it is obvious that they are unsuitable for translation, since their
whole merit lies in metrical dexterity. Examples by the poetess Li I-an
will be found in the second edition of Judith Gautier’s “Livre de Jade.”
The poetry of Su Tung-p’o, the foremost writer of the period, is in its
matter almost wholly a patchwork of earlier poems. It is for the musical
qualities of his verse that he is valued by his countrymen. He hardly
wrote a poem which does not contain a phrase (sometimes a whole line)
borrowed from Po Chü-i, for whom in his critical writings he expresses
boundless admiration.
A word must be said of the Fu (descriptive prose-poems) of this time.
They resemble the _vers libres_ of modern France, using rhyme
occasionally (like Georges Duhamel) as a means of “sonner, rouler, quand
il faut faire donner les cuivres et la batterie.” Of this nature is the
magnificent “Autumn Dirge” (Giles, “Chinese Lit.,” p. 215) by Ou-yang
Hsiu, whose lyric poetry is of small interest. The subsequent periods
need not much concern us. In the eighteenth century the garrulous Yüan
Mei wrote his “Anecdotes of Poetry-making”--a book which, while one of
the most charming in the language, probably contains more bad poetry
(chiefly that of his friends) than any in the world. His own poems are
modelled on Po Chü-i and Su Tung-p’o.
* * * * *
This introduction is intended for the general reader. I have therefore
stated my views simply and categorically, and without entering into
controversies which are of interest only to a few specialists.
As an account of the development of Chinese poetry these notes are
necessarily incomplete, but it is hoped that they answer some of those
questions which a reader would be most likely to ask.
THE METHOD OF TRANSLATION
It is commonly asserted that poetry, when literally translated, ceases
to be poetry. This is often true, and I have for that reason not
attempted to translate many poems which in the original have pleased me
quite as much as those I have selected. But I present the ones I have
chosen in the belief that they still retain the essential
characteristics of poetry.
I have aimed at literal translation, not paraphrase. It may be perfectly
legitimate for a poet to borrow foreign themes or material, but this
should not be called translation.
Above all, considering imagery to be the soul of poetry, I have avoided
either adding images of my own or suppressing those of the original.
Any literal translation of Chinese poetry is bound to be to some extent
rhythmical, for the rhythm of the original obtrudes itself. Translating
literally, without thinking about the metre of the version, one finds
that about two lines out of three have a very definite swing similar to
that of the Chinese lines. The remaining lines are just too short or too
long, a circumstance very irritating to the reader, whose ear expects
the rhythm to continue. I have therefore tried to produce regular
rhythmic effects similar to those of the original. Each character in the
Chinese is represented by a stress in the English; but between the
stresses unstressed syllables are of course interposed. In a few
instances where the English insisted on being shorter than the Chinese,
I have preferred to vary the metre of my version, rather than pad out
the line with unnecessary verbiage.
I have not used rhyme because it is impossible to produce in English
rhyme-effects at all similar to those of the original, where the same
rhyme sometimes runs through a whole poem. Also, because the
restrictions of rhyme necessarily injure either the vigour of one’s
language or the literalness of one’s version. I do not, at any rate,
know of any example to the contrary. What is generally known as “blank
verse” is the worst medium for translating Chinese poetry, because the
essence of blank verse is that it varies the position of its pauses,
whereas in Chinese the stop always comes at the end of the couplet.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
1. H. A. Giles, “Chinese Poetry in English Verse.” 1896. 212 pp.
Combines rhyme and literalness with wonderful dexterity.
2. Hervey St. Denys, “Poésies des Thang.” 1862. 301 pp. The choice of
poems would have been very different if the author had selected from the
whole range of T’ang poetry, instead of contenting himself, except in
the case of Li Po and Tu Fu, with making extracts from two late
anthologies. This book, the work of a great scholar, is reliable--except
in its information about Chinese prosody.
3. Judith Gautier, “Le Livre de Jade.” 1867 and 1908. It has been
difficult to compare these renderings with the original, for proper
names are throughout distorted or interchanged. For example, part of a
poem by Po Chü-i _about_ Yang T’ai-chēn is here given as a complete poem
and ascribed to “Yan-Ta-Tchen” as author. The poet Han Yü figures as
Heu-Yu; T’ao Han as Sao Nan, etc. Such mistakes are evidently due to
faulty decipherment of someone else’s writing. Nevertheless, the book is
far more readable than that of St. Denys, and shows a wider acquaintance
with Chinese poetry on the part of whoever chose the poems. Most of the
credit for this selection must certainly be given to Ting Tun-ling, the
_literatus_ whom Théophile Gautier befriended. But the credit for the
beauty of these often erroneous renderings must go to Mademoiselle
Gautier herself.
4. Anna von Bernhardi, in “Mitteil d. Seminar f. Orient. Sprachen,”
1912, 1915, and 1916. Two articles on T’ao Ch’ien and one on Li Po. All
valuable, though not free from mistakes.
5. Zottoli, “Cursus Litteraturae Sinicae.” 1886. Chinese text with Latin
translation. Vol. V deals with poetry. None of the poems is earlier than
T’ang. The Latin is seldom intelligible without reference to the
Chinese. Translators have obviously used Zottoli as a text. Out of
eighteen Sung poems in Giles’s book, sixteen will be found in Zottoli.
6. A. Pfizmaier, two articles (1886 and 1887) on Po Chü-i in “Denkschr.
d. Kais. Ak. in Wien.” So full of mistakes as to be of very little
value, except in so far as they served to call the attention of the
European reader to this poet.
7. L. Woitsch, “Aus den Gedichten Po Chü-i’s.” 1908. 76 pp. A prose
rendering with Chinese text of about forty poems, not very well
selected. The translations, though inaccurate, are a great advance on
Pfizmaier.
8. E. von Zachs, “Lexicographische Beiträge.” Vols. ii and iv.
Re-translation of two poems previously mistranslated by Pfizmaier.
9. S. Imbault-Huart, “La Poésie Chinoise du 14 au 19 siècle.” 1886. 93
pp.
10. S. Imbault-Huart, “Un Poète Chinois du 18 Siècle.” (Yüan Mei.)
Journ. of China Branch, Royal As. Soc., N.S., vol. xix, part 2, 42 pp.
11. S. Imbault-Huart, “Poésies Modernes.” 1892. 46 pp.
12. A. Forke, “Blüthen Chinesischer Dichtung.” 1899. Rhymed versions of
Li Po and pre-T’ang poems.
A fuller bibliography will be found in Cordier’s “Bibliotheca Sinica.”
CHAPTER I
BATTLE
By Ch’ü Yüan (332-295 B.C.), author of the famous poem “Li Sao,” or
“Falling into Trouble.” Finding that he could not influence the
conduct of his prince, he drowned himself in the river Mi-lo. The
modern Dragon Boat Festival is supposed to be in his honour.
“We grasp our battle-spears: we don our breast-plates of hide.
The axles of our chariots touch: our short swords meet.
Standards obscure the sun: the foe roll up like clouds.
Arrows fall thick: the warriors press forward.
They menace our ranks: they break our line.
The left-hand trace-horse is dead: the one on the right is smitten.
The fallen horses block our wheels: they impede the yoke-horses!”
They grasp their jade drum-sticks: they beat the sounding drums.
Heaven decrees their fall: the dread Powers are angry.
The warriors are all dead: they lie on the moor-field.
They issued but shall not enter: they went but shall not return.
The plains are flat and wide: the way home is long.
Their swords lie beside them: their black bows, in their hand.
Though their limbs were torn, their hearts could not be repressed.
They were more than brave: they were inspired with the spirit of
“Wu.”[2]
Steadfast to the end, they could not be daunted.
Their bodies were stricken, but their souls have taken Immortality--
Captains among the ghosts, heroes among the dead.
[2] _I.e._, military genius.
THE MAN-WIND AND THE WOMAN-WIND
A “fu,” or prose-poem, by Sung Yü (fourth century B.C.), nephew of Ch’ü
Yüan.
Hsiang, king of Ch’u, was feasting in the Orchid-tower Palace, with Sung
Yü and Ching Ch’ai to wait upon him. A gust of wind blew in and the king
bared his breast to meet it, saying: “How pleasant a thing is this wind
which I share with the common people.” Sung Yü answered: “This is the
Great King’s wind. The common people cannot share it.” The king said:
“Wind is a spirit of Heaven and Earth. It comes wide spread and does not
choose between noble and base or between high and low. How can you say
‘This is the king’s wind’?” Sung answered: “I have heard it taught that
in the crooked lemon-tree birds make their nests and to empty spaces
winds fly. But the wind-spirit that comes to different things is not the
same.” The king said: “Where is the wind born?” and Sung answered: “The
wind is born in the ground. It rises in the extremities of the green
p’ing-flower. It pours into the river-valleys and rages at the mouth of
the pass. It follows the rolling flanks of Mount T’ai and dances beneath
the pine-trees and cypresses. In gusty bouts it whirls. It rushes in
fiery anger. It rumbles low with a noise like thunder, tearing down
rocks and trees, smiting forests and grasses.
“But at last abating, it spreads abroad, seeks empty places and crosses
the threshold of rooms. And so growing gentler and clearer, it changes
and is dispersed and dies.
“It is this cool clear Man-Wind that, freeing itself, falls and rises
till it climbs the high walls of the Castle and enters the gardens of
the Inner Palace. It bends the flowers and leaves with its breath. It
wanders among the osmanthus and pepper-trees. It lingers over the
fretted face of the pond, to steal the soul of the hibiscus. It touches
the willow leaves and scatters the fragrant herbs. Then it pauses in the
courtyard and turning to the North goes up to the Jade Hall, shakes the
hanging curtains and lightly passes into the inner room.
“And so it becomes the Great King’s wind.
“Now such a wind is fresh and sweet to breathe and its gentle murmuring
cures the diseases of men, blows away the stupor of wine, sharpens sight
and hearing and refreshes the body. This is what is called the Great
King’s wind.”
The king said: “You have well described it. Now tell me of the common
people’s wind.” Sung said: “The common people’s wind rises from narrow
lanes and streets, carrying clouds of dust. Rushing to empty spaces it
attacks the gateway, scatters the dust-heap, sends the cinders flying,
pokes among foul and rotting things, till at last it enters the tiled
windows and reaches the rooms of the cottage. Now this wind is heavy and
turgid, oppressing man’s heart. It brings fever to his body, ulcers to
his lips and dimness to his eyes. It shakes him with coughing; it kills
him before his time.
“Such is the Woman-wind of the common people.”
The following is a sample of Sung Yü’s prose:
MASTER TĒNG-T’U
By Sung Yü (third century B.C.)
One day when the Chamberlain, master Tēng-t’u, was in attendance at the
Palace he warned the King against Sung Yü, saying: “Yü is a man of
handsome features and calm bearing and his tongue is prompt with subtle
sentences. Moreover, his character is licentious. I would submit that
your Majesty is ill-advised in allowing him to follow you into the
Queen’s apartments.” The King repeated Tēng-t’u’s words to Sung Yü. Yü
replied: “My beauty of face and calmness of bearing were given me by
Heaven. Subtlety of speech I learnt from my teachers. As for my
character, I deny that it is licentious.” The King said: “Can you
substantiate your statement that you are not licentious? If you cannot,
you must leave the Court.” Sung Yü said: “Of all the women in the world,
the most beautiful are the women of the land of Ch’u. And in all the
land of Ch’u there are none like the women of my own village. And in my
village there are none that can be compared with the girl next door.
“The girl next door would be too tall if an inch were added to her
height, and too short if an inch were taken away. Another grain of
powder would make her too pale; another touch of rouge would make her
too red. Her eyebrows are like the plumage of the kingfisher, her flesh
is like snow. Her waist is like a roll of new silk, her teeth are like
little shells. A single one of her smiles would perturb the whole city
of Yang and derange the suburb of Hsia-ts’ai.[3] For three years this
lady has been climbing the garden wall and peeping at me, yet I have
never succumbed.
[3] Fashionable quarters in the capital of Ch’u state.
“How different is the behaviour of master Tēng-t’u! His wife has a wooly
head and misshapen ears; projecting teeth irregularly set; a crook in
her back and a halt in her gait. Moreover, she has running sores in
front and behind.
“Yet Tēng-t’u fell in love with her and caused her to bear him five
children.
“I would have your Majesty consider which of us is the debauchee.”
Sung Yü was not dismissed from court.
THE ORPHAN
Anon. (first century B.C.)
To be an orphan,
To be fated to be an orphan.
How bitter is this lot!
When my father and mother were alive
I used to ride in a carriage
With four fine horses.
But when they both died,
My brother and sister-in-law
Sent me out to be a merchant.
In the south I travelled to the “Nine Rivers”
And in the east as far as Ch’i and Lu.
At the end of the year when I came home
I dared not tell them what I had suffered--
Of the lice and vermin in my head,
Of the dust in my face and eyes.
My brother told me to get ready the dinner.
My sister-in-law told me to see after the horses.
I was always going up into the hall
And running down again to the parlour.
My tears fell like rain.
In the morning they sent me to draw water,
I didn’t get back till night-fall.
My hands were all sore
And I had no shoes.
I walked the cold earth
Treading on thorns and brambles.
As I stopped to pull out the thorns,
How bitter my heart was!
My tears fell and fell
And I went on sobbing and sobbing.
In winter I have no great-coat;
Nor in summer, thin clothes.
It is no pleasure to be alive.
I had rather quickly leave the earth
And go beneath the Yellow Springs.[4]
The April winds blow
And the grass is growing green.
In the third month--silkworms and mulberries,
In the sixth month--the melon-harvest.
I went out with the melon-cart
And just as I was coming home
The melon-cart turned over.
The people who came to help me were few,
But the people who ate the melons were many,
All they left me was the stalks--
To take home as fast as I could.
My brother and sister-in-law were harsh,
They asked me all sorts of awful questions.
Why does everyone in the village hate me?
I want to write a letter and send it
To my mother and father under the earth,
And tell them I can’t go on any longer
Living with my brother and sister-in-law.
[4] Hades.
THE SICK WIFE
She had been ill for years and years;
She sent for me to say something.
She couldn’t say what she wanted
Because of the tears that kept coming of themselves.
“I have burdened you with orphan children,
With orphan children two or three.
Don’t let our children go hungry or cold;
If they do wrong, don’t slap or beat them.
When you take out the baby, rock it in your arms.
Don’t forget to do that.”
Last she said,
“When I carried them in my arms they had no clothes
And now their jackets have no linings.” [_She dies._
I shut the doors and barred the windows
And left the motherless children.
When I got to the market and met my friends, I wept.
I sat down and could not go with them.
I asked them to buy some cakes for my children.
In the presence of my friends I sobbed and cried.
I tried not to grieve, but sorrow would not cease.
I felt in my pocket and gave my friends some money.
When I got home I found my children
Calling to be taken into their mother’s arms.
I walked up and down in the empty room
This way and that a long while.
Then I went away from it and said to myself
“I will forget and never speak of her again.”
COCK-CROW SONG
Anon. (first century B.C.)
In the eastern quarter dawn breaks, the stars flicker pale.
The morning cock at Ju-nan mounts the wall and crows.
The songs are over, the clock[5] run down, but still the feast
is set.
The moon grows dim and the stars are few; morning has come to
the world.
At a thousand gates and ten thousand doors the fish-shaped keys
turn;
Round the Palace and up by the Castle, the crows and magpies are
flying.
[5] A water-clock.
THE GOLDEN PALACE
Anon. (first century B.C.)
We go to the Golden Palace:
We set out the jade cups.
We summon the honoured guests
To enter at the Golden Gate.
They enter at the Golden Gate
And go to the Golden Hall.
In the Eastern Kitchen the meat is sliced and ready--
Roast beef and boiled pork and mutton.
The Master of the Feast hands round the wine.
The harp-players sound their clear chords.
The cups are pushed aside and we face each other at chess:
The rival pawns are marshalled rank against rank.
The fire glows and the smoke puffs and curls;
From the incense-burner rises a delicate fragrance.
The clear wine has made our cheeks red;
Round the table joy and peace prevail.
May those who shared in this day’s delight
Through countless autumns enjoy like felicity.
“OLD POEM”
At fifteen I went with the army,
At fourscore I came home.
On the way I met a man from the village,
I asked him who there was at home.
“That over there is your house,
All covered over with trees and bushes.”
Rabbits had run in at the dog-hole,
Pheasants flew down from the beams of the roof.
In the courtyard was growing some wild grain;
And by the well, some wild mallows.
I’ll boil the grain and make porridge,
I’ll pluck the mallows and make soup.
Soup and porridge are both cooked,
But there is no one to eat them with.
I went out and looked towards the east,
While tears fell and wetted my clothes.
MEETING IN THE ROAD
In a narrow road where there was not room to pass
My carriage met the carriage of a young man.
And while his axle was touching my axle
In the narrow road I asked him where he lived.
“The place where I live is easy enough to find,
Easy to find and difficult to forget.
The gates of my house are built of yellow gold,
The hall of my house is paved with white jade,
On the hall table flagons of wine are set,
I have summoned to serve me dancers of Han-tan.[6]
In the midst of the courtyard grows a cassia-tree,--
And candles on its branches flaring away in the night.”
[6] Capital of the kingdom of Chao, where the people were famous for
their beauty.
FIGHTING SOUTH OF THE CASTLE
Anon. (_circa_ 124 B.C.)
They fought south of the Castle,
They died north of the wall.
They died in the moors and were not buried.
Their flesh was the food of crows.
“Tell the crows we are not afraid;
We have died in the moors and cannot be buried.
Crows, how can our bodies escape you?”
The waters flowed deep
And the rushes in the pool were dark.
The riders fought and were slain:
Their horses wander neighing.
By the bridge there was a house.[7]
Was it south, was it north?
The harvest was never gathered.
How can we give you your offerings?
You served your Prince faithfully,
Though all in vain.
I think of you, faithful soldiers;
Your service shall not be forgotten.
For in the morning you went out to battle
And at night you did not return.
[7] There is no trace of it left. This passage describes the havoc of
war. The harvest has not been gathered: therefore corn-offerings cannot
be made to the spirits of the dead.
THE EASTERN GATE
Anon. (first century B.C.).
A poor man determines to go out into the world and make his fortune.
His wife tries to detain him.
I went out at the eastern gate:
I never thought to return.
But I came back to the gate with my heart full of sorrow.
* * * * *
There was not a peck of rice in the bin:
There was not a coat hanging on the pegs.
So I took my sword and went towards the gate.
My wife and child clutched at my coat and wept:
“Some people want to be rich and grand:
I only want to share my porridge with you.
Above, we have the blue waves of the sky:
Below, the yellow face of this little child.”
“Dear wife, I cannot stay.
Soon it will be too late.
When one is growing old
One cannot put things off.”
OLD AND NEW
Anon. (first century B.C.)
She went up the mountain to pluck wild herbs;
She came down the mountain and met her former husband.
She knelt down and asked her former husband
“What do you find your new wife like?”
“My new wife, although her talk is clever,
Cannot charm me as my old wife could.
In beauty of face there is not much to choose.
But in usefulness they are not at all alike.
My new wife comes in from the road to meet me;
My old wife always came down from her tower.
My new wife is clever at embroidering silk;
My old wife was good at plain sewing.
Of silk embroidery one can do an inch a day;
Of plain sewing, more than five feet.
Putting her silks by the side of your sewing,
I see that the new will not compare with the old.”
SOUTH OF THE GREAT SEA
My love is living
To the south of the Great Sea.
What shall I send to greet him?
Two pearls and a comb of tortoise-shell:
I’ll send them to him packed in a box of jade.
They tell me he is not true:
They tell me he dashed my box to the ground,
Dashed it to the ground and burnt it
And scattered its ashes to the wind.
From this day to the ends of time
I must never think of him,
Never again think of him.
The cocks are crowing,
And the dogs are barking--
My brother and his wife will soon know.[8]
The autumn wind is blowing;
The morning wind is sighing.
In a moment the sun will rise in the east
And then _it_ too will know.
[8] _I.e._, about her engagement being broken off.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE VALLEY
I am a prisoner in the hands of the enemy,
Enduring the shame of captivity.
My bones stick out and my strength is gone
Through not getting enough to eat.
My brother is a Mandarin
And his horses are fed on maize.
Why can’t he spare a little money
To send and ransom me?
OATHS OF FRIENDSHIP
In the country of Yüeh when a man made friends with another they set up
an altar of earth and sacrificed upon it a dog and a cock, reciting this
oath as they did so:
(1)
If you were riding in a coach
And I were wearing a “li,”[9]
And one day we met in the road,
You would get down and bow.
If you were carrying a “tēng”[10]
And I were riding on a horse,
And one day we met in the road
I would get down for you.
[9] A peasant’s coat made of straw.
[10] An umbrella under which a cheap-jack sells his wares.
(2)
Shang Ya!
I want to be your friend
For ever and ever without break or decay.
When the hills are all flat
And the rivers are all dry,
When it lightens and thunders in winter,
When it rains and snows in summer,
When Heaven and Earth mingle--
Not till then will I part from you.
BURIAL SONGS
(1)
“The dew on the garlic-leaf,” sung at the burial of kings and
princes.
How swiftly it dries,
The dew on the garlic-leaf,
The dew that dries so fast
To-morrow will fall again.
But he whom we carry to the grave
Will never more return.
(2)
“The Graveyard,” sung at the burial of common men.
What man’s land is the graveyard?
It is the crowded home of ghosts,--
Wise and foolish shoulder to shoulder.
The King of the Dead claims them all;
Man’s fate knows no tarrying.
SEVENTEEN OLD POEMS
The following seventeen poems are from a series known as the Nineteen
Pieces of Old Poetry. Some have been attributed to Mei Shēng (first
century B.C.), and one to Fu I (first century A.D.). They are manifestly
not all by the same hand nor of the same date. Internal evidence shows
that No. 3 at least was written after the date of Mei Shēng’s death.
These poems had an enormous influence on all subsequent poetry, and many
of the habitual _clichés_ of Chinese verse are taken from them. I have
omitted two because of their marked inferiority.
(1)
On and on, always on and on
Away from you, parted by a life-parting.[11]
Going from one another ten thousand “li,”
Each in a different corner of the World.
The way between is difficult and long,
Face to face how shall we meet again?
The Tartar horse prefers the North wind,
The bird from Yüeh nests on the Southern branch.
Since we parted the time is already long,
Daily my clothes hang looser round my waist.
Floating clouds obscure the white sun,
The wandering one has quite forgotten home.
Thinking of you has made me suddenly old,
The months and years swiftly draw to their close.
I’ll put you out of my mind and forget for ever
And try with all my might to eat and thrive.[12]
[11] The opposite of a parting by death.
[12] The popular, but erroneous, interpretation of these two lines is:
“That I’m cast away and rejected I will not repine, But only hope with
all my heart you’re well.”
(2)
Green, green,
The grass by the river-bank.
Thick, thick,
The willow trees in the garden.
Sad, sad,
The lady in the tower.
White, white,
Sitting at the casement window.
Fair, fair,
Her red-powdered face.
Small, small,
She puts out her pale hand.
Once she was a dancing-house girl.
Now she is a wandering man’s wife.
The wandering man went, but did not return.
It is hard alone to keep an empty bed.
(3)
Green, green,
The cypress on the mound.
Firm, firm,
The boulder in the stream.
Man’s life lived within this world,
Is like the sojourning of a hurried traveller.
A cup of wine together will make us glad,
And a little friendship is no little matter.
Yoking my chariot I urge my stubborn horses.
I wander about in the streets of Wan and Lo.
In Lo Town how fine everything is!
The “Caps and Belts”[13] go seeking each other out.
The great boulevards are intersected by lanes,
Wherein are the town-houses of Royal Dukes.
The two palaces stare at each other from afar,
The twin gates rise a hundred feet.
By prolonging the feast let us keep our hearts gay,
And leave no room for sadness to creep in.
[13] High officers.
(4)
Of this day’s glorious feast and revel
The pleasure and delight are difficult to describe.
Plucking the lute they sent forth lingering sounds,
The new melodies in beauty reached the divine.
Skilful singers intoned the high words,
Those who knew the tune heard the trueness of their singing.
We sat there each with the same desire
And like thoughts by each unexpressed:
“Man in the world lodging for a single life-time
Passes suddenly like dust borne on the wind.
Then let us hurry out with high steps
And be the first to reach the highways and fords:
Rather than stay at home wretched and poor
For long years plunged in sordid grief.”
(5)
In the north-west there is a high house,
Its top level with the floating clouds.
Embroidered curtains thinly screen its windows,
Its storied tower is built on three steps.
From above there comes a noise of playing and singing,
The tune sounding, oh! how sad!
Who can it be, playing so sad a tune?
Surely it must be Ch’i Liang’s[14] wife.
The tranquil “D” follows the wind’s rising,
The middle lay lingers indecisive.
To each note, two or three sobs,
Her high will conquered by overwhelming grief.
She does not regret that she is left so sad,
But minds that so few can understand her song.
She wants to become those two wild geese
That with beating wings rise high aloft.
[14] Who had no father, no husband, and no children.
(6)
Crossing the river I pluck hibiscus-flowers:
In the orchid-swamps are many fragrant herbs.
I gather them, but who shall I send them to?
My love is living in lands far away.
I turn and look towards my own country:
The long road stretches on for ever.
The same heart, yet a different dwelling:
Always fretting, till we are grown old!
(7)
A bright moon illumines the night-prospect:
The house-cricket chirrups on the eastern wall.
The Handle of the Pole-star points to the Beginning of Winter.
The host of stars is scattered over the sky.
The white dew wets the moor-grasses,--
With sudden swiftness the times and seasons change.
The autumn cicada sings among the trees,
The swallows, alas, whither are they gone?
Once I had a same-house friend,
He took flight and rose high away.
He did not remember how once we went hand in hand,
But left me like footsteps behind one in the dust.
In the South is the Winnowing-fan and the Pole-star in the North,
And a Herd-boy[15] whose ox has never borne the yoke.
A friend who is not firm as a great rock
Is of no profit and idly bears the name.
[15] Name of a star. The Herd-boy, who is only figuratively speaking a
herd-boy, is like the friend who is no real friend.
(8)
In the courtyard there grows a strange tree,
Its green leaves ooze with a fragrant moisture.
Holding the branch I cut a flower from the tree,
Meaning to send it away to the person I love.
Its sweet smell fills my sleeves and lap.
The road is long, how shall I get it there?
Such a thing is not fine enough to send:
But it may remind him of the time that has past since he left.[16]
[16] _I.e._ (supposing he went away in the autumn), remind him that
spring has come.
(9)
Far away twinkles the Herd-boy star;
Brightly shines the Lady of the Han River.
Slender, slender she plies her white fingers.
Click, click go the wheels of her spinning-loom.
At the end of the day she has not finished her task;
Her bitter tears fall like streaming rain.
The Han River runs shallow and clear;
Set between them, how short a space!
But the river water will not let them pass,
Gazing at each other but never able to speak.
(10)
Turning my chariot I yoke my horses and go.
On and on down the long roads
The autumn winds shake the hundred grasses.
On every side, how desolate and bare!
The things I meet are all new things,
Their strangeness hastens the coming of old age.
Prosperity and decay each have their season.
Success is bitter when it is slow in coming.
Man’s life is not metal or stone,
He cannot far prolong the days of his fate.
Suddenly he follows in the way of things that change.
Fame is the only treasure that endures.
(11)
The Eastern Castle stands tall and high;
Far and wide stretch the towers that guard it.
The whirling wind uprises and shakes the earth;
The autumn grasses grow thick and green.
The four seasons alternate without pause,
The year’s end hurries swiftly on.
The Bird of the Morning Wind is stricken with sorrow;
The frail cicada suffers and is hard pressed.
Free and clear, let us loosen the bonds of our hearts.
Why should we go on always restraining and binding?
In Yen and Chao are many fair ladies,
Beautiful people with faces like jade.
Their clothes are made all of silk gauze.
They stand at the door practising tranquil lays.
The echo of their singing, how sad it sounds!
By the pitch of the song one knows the stops have been tightened.
To ease their minds they arrange their shawls and belts;
Lowering their song, a little while they pause.
“I should like to be those two flying swallows
Who are carrying clay to nest in the eaves of your house.”
(12)
I drive my chariot up to the Eastern Gate;
From afar I see the graveyard north of the Wall.
The white aspens how they murmur, murmur;
Pines and cypresses flank the broad paths.
Beneath lie men who died long ago;
Black, black is the long night that holds them.
Deep down beneath the Yellow Springs,
Thousands of years they lie without waking.
In infinite succession light and darkness shift,
And years vanish like the morning dew.
Man’s life is like a sojourning,
His longevity lacks the firmness of stone and metal.
For ever it has been that mourners in their turn were mourned,
Saint and Sage,--all alike are trapped.
Seeking by food to obtain Immortality
Many have been the dupe of strange drugs.
Better far to drink good wine
And clothe our bodies in robes of satin and silk.
(13) CONTINUATION OF (12)
The dead are gone and with them we cannot converse.
The living are here and ought to have our love.
Leaving the city-gate I look ahead
And see before me only mounds and tombs.
The old graves are ploughed up into fields,
The pines and cypresses are hewn for timber.
In the white aspens sad winds sing;
Their long murmuring kills my heart with grief.
I want to go home, to ride to my village gate.
I want to go back, but there’s no road back.
(14)
The years of a lifetime do not reach a hundred.
Yet they contain a thousand years’ sorrow.
When days are short and the dull nights long,
Why not take a lamp and wander forth?
If you want to be happy you must do it now,
There is no waiting till an after-time.
The fool who’s loath to spend the wealth he’s got
Becomes the laughing-stock of after ages.
It is true that Master Wang became immortal,
But how can _we_ hope to share his lot?
(15)
Cold, cold the year draws to its end,
The crickets and grasshoppers make a doleful chirping.
The chill wind increases its violence.
My wandering love has no coat to cover him.
He gave his embroidered furs to the Lady of Lo,
But from me his bedfellow he is quite estranged.
Sleeping alone in the depth of the long night
In a dream I thought I saw the light of his face.
My dear one thought of our old joys together,
He came in his chariot and gave me the front reins.
I wanted so to prolong our play and laughter,
To hold his hand and go back with him in his coach.
But, when he had come he would not stay long
Nor stop to go with me to the Inner Chamber.
Truly without the falcon’s wings to carry me
How can I rival the flying wind’s swiftness?
I go and lean at the gate and think of my grief,
My falling tears wet the double gates.
(16)
At the beginning of winter a cold spirit comes,
The North Wind blows--chill, chill.
My sorrows being many, I know the length of the nights,
Raising my head I look at the stars in their places.
On the fifteenth day the bright moon is full,
On the twentieth day the “toad and hare” wane.[17]
A stranger came to me from a distant land
And brought me a single scroll with writing on it;
At the top of the scroll was written “Do not forget,”
At the bottom was written “Goodbye for Ever.”
I put the letter away in the folds of my dress,
For three years the writing did not fade.
How with an undivided heart I loved you
I fear that you will never know or guess.
[17] The “toad and hare” correspond to our “man in the moon.” The waning
of the moon symbolizes the waning of the lover’s affection.
(17)
The bright moon, oh, how white it shines,
Shines down on the gauze curtains of my bed.
Racked by sorrow I toss and cannot sleep.
Picking up my clothes, I wander up and down.
My absent love says that he is happy,
But I would rather he said he was coming back.
Out in the courtyard I stand hesitating, alone.
To whom can I tell the sad thoughts I think?
Staring before me I enter my room again;
Falling tears wet my mantle and robe.
THE AUTUMN WIND
By Wu-ti (157-87 B.C.), sixth emperor of the Han dynasty. He came to the
throne when he was only sixteen. In this poem he regrets that he is
obliged to go on an official journey, leaving his mistress behind in the
capital. He is seated in his state barge surrounded by his ministers.
Autumn wind rises: white clouds fly.
Grass and trees wither: geese go south.
Orchids all in bloom: chrysanthemums smell sweet.
I think of my lovely lady: I never can forget.
Floating-pagoda boat crosses Fēn River.
Across the mid-stream white waves rise
Flute and drum keep time to sound of the rowers’ song;
Amidst revel and feasting, sad thoughts come;
Youth’s years how few! Age how sure!
LI FU-JĒN
The sound of her silk skirt has stopped.
On the marble pavement dust grows.
Her empty room is cold and still.
Fallen leaves are piled against the doors.
Longing for that lovely lady
How can I bring my aching heart to rest?
The above poem was written by Wu-ti when his mistress, Li Fu-jēn, died.
Unable to bear his grief, he sent for wizards from all parts of China,
hoping that they would be able to put him into communication with her
spirit. At last one of them managed to project her shape on to a
curtain. The emperor cried:
Is it or isn’t it?
I stand and look.
The swish, swish of a silk skirt.
How slow she comes!
SONG OF SNOW-WHITE HEADS
Ssŭ-ma Hsiang-ju was a young poet who had lost his position at court
owing to ill-health. One day Cho Wēn-chün, a rich man’s daughter, heard
him singing at a feast given by her father. She eloped with him that
night, and they set up a wine-shop together. After a time Hsiang-ju
became famous as a poet, but his character was marred by love of money.
He sold love-poems, which the ladies of the palace sent to the emperor
in order to win his favour. Finally, he gave presents to the “ladies of
Mo-ling,” hoping to secure a concubine. It was this step that induced
his mistress, Cho Wēn-chün, to write the following poem.
Our love was pure
As the snow on the mountains:
White as a moon
Between the clouds--
They’re telling me
Your thoughts are double
That’s why I’ve come
To break it off.
To-day we’ll drink
A cup of wine.
To-morrow we’ll part
Beside the Canal:
Walking about
Beside the Canal,
Where its branches divide
East and west.
Alas and alas,
And again alas.
So must a girl
Cry when she’s married,
If she find not a man
Of single heart,
Who will not leave her
Till her hair is white.
TO HIS WIFE
By General Su Wu (_circa_ 100 B.C.)
Since our hair was plaited and we became man and wife
The love between us was never broken by doubt.
So let us be merry this night together,
Feasting and playing while the good time lasts.
* * * * *
I suddenly remember the distance that I must travel;
I spring from bed and look out to see the time.
The stars and planets are all grown dim in the sky;
Long, long is the road; I cannot stay.
I am going on service, away to the battle-ground,
And I do not know when I shall come back.
I hold your hand with only a deep sigh;
Afterwards, tears--in the days when we are parted.
With all your might enjoy the spring flowers,
But do not forget the time of our love and pride.
Know that if I live, I will come back again,
And if I die, we will go on thinking of each other.
LI LING
(Parting from Su Wu)
The good time will never come back again:
In a moment,--our parting will be over.
Anxiously--we halt at the road-side,
Hesitating--we embrace where the fields begin.
The clouds above are floating across the sky:
Swiftly, swiftly passing: or blending together.
The waves in the wind lose their fixed place
And are rolled away each to a corner of Heaven.
From now onwards--long must be our parting.
So let us stop again for a little while.
I wish I could ride on the wings of the morning wind
And go with you right to your journey’s end.
Li Ling and Su Wu were both prisoners in the land of the Huns. After
nineteen years Su Wu was released. Li Ling would not go back with him.
When invited to do so, he got up and danced, singing:
I came ten thousand leagues
Across sandy deserts
In the service of my Prince,
To break the Hun tribes.
My way was blocked and barred,
My arrows and sword broken.
My armies had faded away,
My reputation had gone.
* * * * *
My old mother is long dead.
Although I want to requite my Prince
How can I return?
LAMENT OF HSI-CHÜN
About the year 110 B.C. a Chinese Princess named Hsi-chün was sent, for
political reasons, to be the wife of a central Asian nomad king, K’un
Mo, king of the Wu-sun. When she got there, she found her husband old
and decrepit. He only saw her once or twice a year, when they drank a
cup of wine together. They could not converse, as they had no language
in common.
My people have married me
In a far corner of Earth:
Sent me away to a strange land,
To the king of the Wu-sun.
A tent is my house,
Of felt are my walls;
Raw flesh my food
With mare’s milk to drink.
Always thinking of my own country,
My heart sad within.
Would I were a yellow stork
And could fly to my old home!
CH’IN CHIA
Ch’in Chia (first century A.D.) was summoned to take up an appointment
at the capital at a time when his wife was ill and staying with her
parents. He was therefore unable to say goodbye to her, and sent her
three poems instead. This is the last of the three.
Solemn, solemn the coachman gets ready to go:
“Chiang, chiang” the harness bells ring.
At break of dawn I must start on my long journey:
At cock-crow I must gird on my belt.
I turn back and look at the empty room:
For a moment I almost think I see you there.
One parting, but ten thousand regrets:
As I take my seat, my heart is unquiet.
What shall I do to tell you all my thoughts?
How can I let you know of all my love?
Precious hairpins make the head to shine
And bright mirrors can reflect beauty.
Fragrant herbs banish evil smells
And the scholar’s harp has a clear note.
The man in the Book of Odes[18] who was given a quince
Wanted to pay it back with diamonds and rubies.
When I think of all the things you have done for me,
How ashamed I am to have done so little for you!
Although I know that it is a poor return,
All I can give you is this description of my feelings.
[18] Odes, v, 10.
CH’IN CHIA’S WIFE’S REPLY
My poor body is alas unworthy:
I was ill when first you brought me home.
Limp and weary in the house--
Time passed and I got no better.
We could hardly ever see each other:
I could not serve you as I ought.
Then you received the Imperial Mandate:
You were ordered to go far away to the City.
Long, long must be our parting:
I was not destined to tell you my thoughts.
I stood on tiptoe gazing into the distance,
Interminably gazing at the road that had taken you.
With thoughts of you my mind is obsessed:
In my dreams I see the light of your face.
Now you are started on your long journey
Each day brings you further from me.
Oh that I had a bird’s wings
And high flying could follow you.
Long I sob and long I cry:
The tears fall down and wet my skirt.
SONG
By Sung Tzŭ-hou (second century A.D.)
On the Eastern Way at the city of Lo-yang
At the edge of the road peach-trees and plum-trees grow;
On the two sides,--flower matched by flower;
Across the road,--leaf touching leaf.
A spring wind rises from the north-east;
Flowers and leaves gently nod and sway.
Up the road somebody’s daughter comes
Carrying a basket, to gather silkworms’ food.
(_She sees the fruit trees in blossom and, forgetting about her
silkworms, begins to pluck the branches._)
With her slender hand she breaks a branch from the tree;
The flowers fall, tossed and scattered in the wind.
_The tree says:_
“Lovely lady, I never did you harm;
Why should you hate me and do me injury?”
_The lady answers:_
“At high autumn in the eighth and ninth moons
When the white dew changes to hoar-frost,
At the year’s end the wind would have lashed your boughs,
Your sweet fragrance could not have lasted long.
Though in the autumn your leaves patter to the ground,
When spring comes, your gay bloom returns.
But in men’s lives when their bright youth is spent
Joy and love never come back again.”