No More Learning

[41] A brother of Prince Ch'? ng, of the Chou dynasty.

The pleasures of those times shall never again be met with. I went West
to offer up a Ballad of Tall Willows,[42] but got no promotion at the
Northern Gate and, white-headed, went back to the Eastern Hills.

[42] Yang Hsiung, died A. D. 18, having lived all his life in obscurity,
obtained promotion in his old age by a poem of this title.

Once we met at the Southern end of Wei Bridge, but scattered again to
the north of the Tso Terrace.

And if you ask me how many are my regrets at this parting, I will tell
you they come from me thick as the flowers that fall at Spring's end.

But I cannot tell you all I feel; I could not even if I went on talking
for ever. So I call in the boy and make him kneel here and tie this up,
and send it to you, a remembrance, from a thousand miles away.


XV. 2. A DREAM OF T'IEN-MU MOUNTAIN

(_Part of a Poem in Irregular Metre. _)

On through the night I flew, high over the Mirror Lake.
The lake-moon
cast my shadow on the waves and travelled with me to the stream of
Shan. The Lord Hsieh's[43] lodging-place was still there. The blue
waters rippled; the cry of the apes was shrill. I shod my feet with
the shoes of the Lord Hsieh and "climbed to Heaven on a ladder of dark
clouds. "[44] Half-way up, I saw the unrisen sun hiding behind the sea
and heard the Cock of Heaven crowing in the sky. By a thousand broken
paths I twisted and turned from crag to crag. My eyes grew dim. I
clutched at the rocks, and all was dark.

[43] Hsieh Ling-yun (_circa_ A. D. 400) was a famous mountain-climber
who invented special mountain-climbing shoes.

[44] A quotation from one of Hsieh's poems.

The roaring of bears and the singing of dragons echoed amid the stones
and streams. The darkness of deep woods made me afraid. I trembled at
the storied cliffs.

The clouds hung dark, as though they would rain; the air was dim with
the spray of rushing waters.