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18
The Poet Li Po
Who are these gaily riding
along the river-bank,
Three by three and five by five,
glinting through the willow-boughs?
Deep the hoofs of their neighing roans
sink into the fallen leaves;
The riders see, for a moment pause,
and are gone with a pang at heart.
along the river-bank,
Three by three and five by five,
glinting through the willow-boughs?
Deep the hoofs of their neighing roans
sink into the fallen leaves;
The riders see, for a moment pause,
and are gone with a pang at heart.
IV. 24.
Ch'ang-kan
Soon after I wore my hair covering my forehead
I was plucking flowers and playing in front of the gate,
When you came by, walking on bamboo-stilts
Along the trellis,[1] playing with the green plums.
We both lived in the village of Ch'ang-kan,
Two children, without hate or suspicion.
At fourteen I became your wife;
I was shame-faced and never dared smile.
I sank my head against the dark wall;
Called to a thousand times, I did not turn.
At fifteen I stopped wrinkling my brow
And desired my ashes to be mingled with your dust.
I thought you were like the man who clung to the bridge:[2]
Not guessing I should climb the Look-for-Husband Terrace,[3]
But next year you went far away,
To Ch'ü-t'ang and the Whirling Water Rocks.
In the fifth month "one should not venture there"[4]
I was plucking flowers and playing in front of the gate,
When you came by, walking on bamboo-stilts
Along the trellis,[1] playing with the green plums.
We both lived in the village of Ch'ang-kan,
Two children, without hate or suspicion.
At fourteen I became your wife;
I was shame-faced and never dared smile.
I sank my head against the dark wall;
Called to a thousand times, I did not turn.
At fifteen I stopped wrinkling my brow
And desired my ashes to be mingled with your dust.
I thought you were like the man who clung to the bridge:[2]
Not guessing I should climb the Look-for-Husband Terrace,[3]
But next year you went far away,
To Ch'ü-t'ang and the Whirling Water Rocks.
In the fifth month "one should not venture there"[4]
- ↑ It is hard to believe that "bed" or "chair" is meant, as hitherto translated. "Trellis" is, however, only a guess.
- ↑ A man had promised to meet a girl under a bridge. She did not come, but although the water began to rise, he trusted so firmly in her word, that he clung to the pillars of the bridge and waited till he was drowned.
- ↑ So called because a woman waited there so long for her hushand that she turned into stone.
- ↑ Quotation from the Yangtze boatman's song:
- "When Yen-yü is as big as a man's hat
- One should not venture to make for Ch'ü-t'ang."
