The Chancellor's horse's hoofs
Stepped on the gravel and remained perfectly clean;
But the bull employed in dragging the cart
Was almost sweating blood.
Stepped on the gravel and remained perfectly clean;
But the bull employed in dragging the cart
Was almost sweating blood.
Waley - 170 Chinese Poems
[58] The Gobi Desert.
[59] The grave of Chao-chun, a Chinese girl who in 33 B. C. was "bestowed
upon the Khan of the Hsiung-nu as a mark of Imperial regard" (Giles).
Hers was the only grave in this desolate district on which grass would
grow.
[60] _I. e. _, Chinese.
THE CHANCELLOR'S GRAVEL-DRIVE
(A SATIRE ON THE MALTREATMENT OF SUBORDINATES)
A Government-bull yoked to a Government-cart!
Moored by the bank of Ch'an River, a barge loaded with gravel.
A single load of gravel,
How many pounds it weighs!
Carrying at dawn, carrying at dusk, what is it all for?
They are carrying it towards the Five Gates,
To the West of the Main Road.
Under the shadow of green laurels they are making a gravel-drive.
For yesterday arrove, newly appointed,
The Assistant Chancellor of the Realm,
And was terribly afraid that the wet and mud
Would dirty his horse's hoofs.
The Chancellor's horse's hoofs
Stepped on the gravel and remained perfectly clean;
But the bull employed in dragging the cart
Was almost sweating blood.
The Assistant Chancellor's business
Is to "save men, govern the country
And harmonize Yin and Yang. "[61]
Whether the bull's neck is sore
Need not trouble him at all.
[61] The negative and positive principles in nature.
THE MAN WHO DREAMED OF FAIRIES
This poem is an attack on the Emperor Hsien-tsung, A. D. 806-820, who
"was devoted to magic. " A Taoist wizard told him that herbs of longevity
grew near the city of T'ai-chou. The Emperor at once appointed him
prefect of the place, "pour lui permettre d'herboriser plus a son aise"
(Wieger, Textes III, 1723). When the censors protested, the Emperor
replied: "The ruin of a single district would be a small price to pay,
if it could procure longevity for the Lord of Men. "
There was once a man who dreamt he went to Heaven:
His dream-body soared aloft through space.
He rode on the back of a white-plumed crane,
And was led on his flight by two crimson banners.
Whirring of wings and flapping of coat tails!
Jade bells suddenly all a-tinkle!
Half way to Heaven, he looked down beneath him,
Down on the dark turmoil of the World.
Gradually he lost the place of his native town;
Mountains and water--nothing else distinct.
