No More Learning

Ch'u P'ing's[30] prose and verse
Hang like the sun and moon;[31]
The king of Ch'u's arbours and towers
Are only hummocks in the ground.
With my mood at its height I wield my brush
And the Five Hills quake;
When the poem is done, my laughter soars
To the Blue Isles[32] of the sky.
Riches, Honour, Triumph, Fame,
Than that _you_ should long endure,
It were likelier the stream of the River Han
Should flow to the North-West!

[27] A phrase from the Li Sao.

[28] Tou Tz? -an, who was carried to Heaven by a yellow crane near
Wu-ch'ang.

[29] A story from Lieh Tzu.

[30] _I. e. _, Ch'u Yuan.

[31] Practically a quotation from Ch'u Yuan's "Life," by Ss? -ma Ch'ien.

[32] Fairyland, sometimes thought of as being in the middle of the sea,
sometimes (as here) in the sky.


XIII. 11.
SENT TO THE COMMISSARY YUAN OF CH'IAO CITY, IN MEMORY OF
FORMER EXCURSIONS

Do you remember how once at Lo-yang, Tung Tsao-ch'in built us a
wine-tower south of the T'ien-ching Bridge?

With yellow gold and tallies of white jade we bought songs and
laughter, and we were drunk month after month, with no thought of kings
and princes, though among us were the wisest and bravest within the
Four Seas, and men of high promotion. [33]

[33] Lit. "blue clouds people. "

(But with you above all my heart was at no cross-purpose. )[34] Going
round mountains and skirting lakes was as nothing to them. They poured
out their hearts and minds, and held nothing back.

[34] A phrase from Chuang Tz? .

Then I went off to Huai-nan to pluck the laurel-branches,[35] and you
stayed north of the Lo, sighing over thoughts and dreams.

[35] Huai-nan is associated with laurel-branches, owing to a famous
poem by the King of Huai-nan.

We could not endure separation. We sought each other out and went on
and on together, exploring the Fairy Castle. [36]

[36] Name of a mountain.

We followed the thirty-six bends of the twisting waters, and all along
the streams a thousand different flowers were in bloom. We passed
through ten thousand valleys, and in each we heard the voice of wind
among the pines.