What man's land is the
graveyard?
Waley - 170 Chinese Poems
My bones stick out and my strength is gone
Through not getting enough to eat.
My brother is a Mandarin
And his horses are fed on maize.
Why can't he spare a little money
To send and ransom me?
OATHS OF FRIENDSHIP
In the country of Yueh when a man made friends with another they set up
an altar of earth and sacrificed upon it a dog and a cock, reciting this
oath as they did so:
(1)
If you were riding in a coach
And I were wearing a "li,"[9]
And one day we met in the road,
You would get down and bow.
If you were carrying a "t? ng"[10]
And I were riding on a horse,
And one day we met in the road
I would get down for you.
[9] A peasant's coat made of straw.
[10] An umbrella under which a cheap-jack sells his wares.
(2)
Shang Ya!
I want to be your friend
For ever and ever without break or decay.
When the hills are all flat
And the rivers are all dry,
When it lightens and thunders in winter,
When it rains and snows in summer,
When Heaven and Earth mingle--
Not till then will I part from you.
BURIAL SONGS
(1)
"The dew on the garlic-leaf," sung at the burial of kings and
princes.
How swiftly it dries,
The dew on the garlic-leaf,
The dew that dries so fast
To-morrow will fall again.
But he whom we carry to the grave
Will never more return.
(2)
"The Graveyard," sung at the burial of common men.
What man's land is the graveyard?
It is the crowded home of ghosts,--
Wise and foolish shoulder to shoulder.
The King of the Dead claims them all;
Man's fate knows no tarrying.
SEVENTEEN OLD POEMS
The following seventeen poems are from a series known as the Nineteen
Pieces of Old Poetry. Some have been attributed to Mei Sh? ng (first
century B. C. ), and one to Fu I (first century A. D. ). They are manifestly
not all by the same hand nor of the same date. Internal evidence shows
that No. 3 at least was written after the date of Mei Sh? ng's death.
These poems had an enormous influence on all subsequent poetry, and many
of the habitual _cliches_ of Chinese verse are taken from them. I have
omitted two because of their marked inferiority.
