No More Learning

Who are these gaily riding
along the river-bank,
Three by three and five by five,
glinting through the willow-boughs?
Deep the hoofs of their neighing roans
sink into the fallen leaves;
The riders see, for a moment pause,
and are gone with a pang at heart.


IV. 24. CH'ANG-KAN

Soon after I wore my hair covering my forehead
I was plucking flowers and playing in front of the gate,
When _you_ came by, walking on bamboo-stilts
Along the trellis,[23] playing with the green plums.
We both lived in the village of Ch'ang-kan,
Two children, without hate or suspicion.
At fourteen I became your wife;
I was shame-faced and never dared smile.
I sank my head against the dark wall;
Called to a thousand times, I did not turn.
At fifteen I stopped wrinkling my brow
And desired my ashes to be mingled with your dust.
I thought you were like the man who clung to the bridge:[24]
Not guessing I should climb the Look-for-Husband Terrace,[25]
But next year you went far away,
To Ch'u-t'ang and the Whirling Water Rocks.
In the fifth month "one should not venture there"[26]
Where wailing monkeys cluster in the cliffs above.
In front of the door, the tracks you once made
One by one have been covered by green moss--
Moss so thick that I cannot sweep it away,
And leaves are falling in the early autumn wind.
Yellow with August the pairing butterflies
In the western garden flit from grass to grass.
The sight of these wounds my heart with pain;
As I sit and sorrow, my red cheeks fade.
Send me a letter and let me know in time
When your boat will be going through the three gorges of Pa.
I will come to meet you as far as ever you please,
Even to the dangerous sands of Ch'ang-f? ng.

[23] It is hard to believe that "bed" or "chair" is meant, as hitherto
translated. "Trellis" is, however, only a guess.

[24] A man had promised to meet a girl under a bridge. She did not
come, but although the water began to rise, he trusted so firmly in her
word, that he clung to the pillars of the bridge and waited till he was
drowned.

[25] So called because a woman waited there so long for her husband
that she turned into stone.

[26] Quotation from the Yangtze boatman's song:

"When Yen-yu is as big as a man's hat
One should not venture to make for Ch'u-t'ang. "


VII. 4. RIVER SONG

Of satin-wood our boat is made,
Our oars of ebony;[27]
Jade pipes and gold flutes
Play at stern and prow.
A thousand gallons of red wine
We carry in the ship's hold;
With girls on board at the waves' will
We are glad to drift or stay.
Even the rishi[28] had to wait
For a yellow crane to ride;
But the sailor[29] whose heart had no guile
Was followed by the white gulls.
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!