A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems Part 21

THE HARPER OF CHAO

The singers have hushed their notes of clear song: The red sleeves of the dancers are motionless.

Hugging his lute, the old harper of Chao Rocks and sways as he touches the five chords.

The loud notes swell and scatter abroad: "Sa, sa," like wind blowing the rain.

The soft notes dying almost to nothing: "Ch'ieh, ch'ieh," like the voice of ghosts talking.

Now as glad as the magpie's lucky song: Again bitter as the gibbon's ominous cry.

His ten fingers have no fixed note: Up and down--"kung," chih, and yu.[54]

And those who sit and listen to the tune he plays Of soul and body lose the mastery.

And those who pa.s.s that way as he plays the tune, Suddenly stop and cannot raise their feet.

Alas, alas that the ears of common men Should love the modern and not love the old.

Thus it is that the harp in the green window Day by day is covered deeper with dust.

[54] Tonic, dominant and superdominant of the ancient five-note scale.

THE FLOWER MARKET

In the Royal City spring is almost over: Tinkle, tinkle--the coaches and hors.e.m.e.n pa.s.s.

We tell each other "This is the peony season": And follow with the crowd that goes to the Flower Market.

"Cheap and dear--no uniform price: The cost of the plant depends on the number of blossoms.

For the fine flower,--a hundred pieces of damask: For the cheap flower,--five bits of silk.

Above is spread an awning to protect them: Around is woven a wattle-fence to screen them.

If you sprinkle water and cover the roots with mud, When they are transplanted, they will not lose their beauty."

Each household thoughtlessly follows the custom, Man by man, no one realizing.

There happened to be an old farm labourer Who came by chance that way.

He bowed his head and sighed a deep sigh: But this sigh n.o.body understood.

He was thinking, "A cl.u.s.ter of deep-red flowers Would pay the taxes of ten poor houses."

THE PRISONER

Written in A.D. 809

Tartars led in chains, Tartars led in chains!

Their ears pierced, their faces bruised--they are driven into the land of Ch'in.

The Son of Heaven took pity on them and would not have them slain.

He sent them away to the south-east, to the lands of Wu and Yueh.

A petty officer in a yellow coat took down their names and surnames: They were led from the city of Ch'ang-an under escort of an armed guard.

Their bodies were covered with the wounds of arrows, their bones stood out from their cheeks.

They had grown so weak they could only march a single stage a day.

In the morning they must satisfy hunger and thirst with neither plate nor cup: At night they must lie in their dirt and rags on beds that stank with filth.

Suddenly they came to the Yangtze River and remembered the waters of Chiao.[55]

With lowered hands and levelled voices they sobbed a m.u.f.fled song.

Then one Tartar lifted up his voice and spoke to the other Tartars, "_Your_ sorrows are none at all compared with _my_ sorrows."

Those that were with him in the same band asked to hear his tale: As he tried to speak the words were choked by anger.

He told them "I was born and bred in the town of Liang-yuan.[56]

In the frontier wars of Ta-li[57] I fell into the Tartars' hands.

Since the days the Tartars took me alive forty years have pa.s.sed: They put me into a coat of skins tied with a belt of rope.

Only on the first of the first month might I wear my Chinese dress.

As I put on my coat and arranged my cap, how fast the tears flowed!

I made in my heart a secret vow I would find a way home: I hid my plan from my Tartar wife and the children she had borne me in the land.

I thought to myself, 'It is well for me that my limbs are still strong,'

And yet, being old, in my heart I feared I should never live to return.

The Tartar chieftains shoot so well that the birds are afraid to fly: From the risk of their arrows I escaped alive and fled swiftly home.

Hiding all day and walking all night, I crossed the Great Desert:[58]

Where clouds are dark and the moon black and the sands eddy in the wind.

Frightened, I sheltered at the Green Grave,[59] where the frozen gra.s.ses are few: Stealthily I crossed the Yellow River, at night, on the thin ice, Suddenly I heard Han[60] drums and the sound of soldiers coming: I went to meet them at the road-side, bowing to them as they came.

But the moving hors.e.m.e.n did not hear that I spoke the Han tongue: Their Captain took me for a Tartar born and had me bound in chains.

They are sending me away to the south-east, to a low and swampy land: No one now will take pity on me: resistance is all in vain.

Thinking of this, my voice chokes and I ask of Heaven above, Was I spared from death only to spend the rest of my years in sorrow?

My native village of Liang-yuan I shall not see again: My wife and children in the Tartars' land I have fruitlessly deserted.

When I fell among Tartars and was taken prisoner, I pined for the land of Han: Now that I am back in the land of Han, they have turned me into a Tartar.

Had I but known what my fate would be, I would not have started home!

For the two lands, so wide apart, are alike in the sorrow they bring.

Tartar prisoners in chains!

Of all the sorrows of all the prisoners mine is the hardest to bear!

Never in the world has so great a wrong befallen the lot of man,-- A Han heart and a Han tongue set in the body of a Turk."

[55] In Turkestan.

[56] North of Ch'ang-an.

[57] The period Ta-li, A.D. 766-780.

[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 gra.s.s 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 a.s.sistant 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 a.s.sistant 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.