No More Learning

THE COCK-FIGHT

By Ts'ao Chih

Our wandering eyes are sated with the dancer's skill.
Our ears are weary with the sound of "kung" and "shang. "[21]
Our host is silent and sits doing nothing:
All the guests go on to places of amusement.

* * * * *

On long benches the sportsmen sit ranged
Round a cleared room, watching the fighting-cocks.
The gallant birds are all in battle-trim:
They raise their tails and flap defiantly.
Their beating wings stir the calm air:
Their angry eyes gleam with a red light.
Where their beaks have struck, the fine feathers are scattered:
With their strong talons they wound again and again.
Their long cries enter the blue clouds;
Their flapping wings tirelessly beat and throb.
"Pray God the lamp-oil lasts a little longer,
Then I shall not leave without winning the match! "

[21] Notes of the scale.


A VISION

By Ts'ao Chih

In the Nine Provinces there is not room enough:
I want to soar high among the clouds,
And, far beyond the Eight Limits of the compass,
Cast my gaze across the unmeasured void.
I will wear as my gown the red mists of sunrise,
And as my skirt the white fringes of the clouds:
My canopy--the dim lustre of Space:
My chariot--six dragons mounting heavenward:
And before the light of Time has shifted a pace
Suddenly stand upon the World's blue rim.
The doors of Heaven swing open,
The double gates shine with a red light.
I roam and linger in the palace of W? n-ch'ang,[22]
I climb up to the hall of T'ai-wei.
[22]
The Lord God lies at his western lattice:
And the lesser Spirits are together in the eastern gallery.
They wash me in a bath of rainbow-spray
And gird me with a belt of jasper and rubies.
I wander at my ease gathering divine herbs:
I bend down and touch the scented flowers.
Wang-tz? [23] gives me drugs of long-life
And Hsien-m? n[23] hands me strange potions.
By the partaking of food I evade the rites of Death:
My span is extended to the enjoyment of life everlasting.

[22] Stars.

[23] Immortals.


THE CURTAIN OF THE WEDDING BED

By Liu Hsun's wife (third century A. D. ).

After she had been married to him for a long while, General Liu Hsun
sent his wife back to her home, because he had fallen in love with a
girl of the Ssu-ma family.

Flap, flap, you curtain in front of our bed!
I hung you there to screen us from the light of day.
I brought you with me when I left my father's house;
Now I am taking you back with me again.