No More Learning

* * * * *

The conversation does not end quickly:
Prattling and babbling, what a lot he says!
Only when one is almost dead with fatigue
He asks at last if one isn't finding him tiring.
(One's arm is almost in half with continual fanning:
The sweat is pouring down one's neck in streams. )
Do not say that this is a small matter:
I consider the practice a blot on our social life.
I therefore caution all wise men
That August visitors should not be admitted.


ON THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER

By Wei W? n-ti, son of Ts'ao Ts'ao, who founded the dynasty of Wei, and
died in A. D. 220. (The poem has been wrongly attributed to Han W? n-ti,
died 157 B. C. )

I look up and see / his curtains and bed:
I look down and examine / his table and mat.
The things are there / just as before.
But the man they belonged to / is not there.
His spirit suddenly / has taken flight
And left me behind / far away.
To whom shall I look / on whom rely?
My tears flow / in an endless stream.
"Yu, yu" / cry the wandering deer
As they carry fodder / to their young in the wood.
Flap, flap / fly the birds
As they carry their little ones / back to the nest.
I alone / am desolate
Dreading the days / of our long parting:
My grieving heart's / settled pain
No one else / can understand.
There is a saying / among people
"Sorrow makes us / grow old. "
Alas, alas / for my white hairs!
All too early / they have come!
Long wailing, / long sighing
My thoughts are fixed on my sage parent.
They say the good / live long:
Then why was he / not spared?


THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST WU

TWO POEMS

By Wei W? n-ti (A. D. 188-227)

(1)

My charioteer hastens to yoke my carriage,
For I must go on a journey far away.
"Where are you going on your journey far away?