PRELIMINARY NOTE

In making this book I have tried to avoid poems which have been translated before. A hundred and forty of those I have chosen have not been translated by any one else. The remaining thirty odd I have included in many cases because the previous versions were full of mistakes; in others, because the works in which they appeared are no longer procurable. Moreover, they are mostly in German, a language with which my readers may not all be acquainted.

With some hesitation I have included literal versions of six poems (three of the “Seventeen Old Poems,” “Autumn Wind,” “Li Fu-jēn,” and “On the Death of his Father”) already skilfully rhymed by Professor Giles in “Chinese Poetry in English Verse.” They were too typical to omit; and a comparison of the two renderings may be of interest. Some of these translations have appeared in the “Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies,” in the “New Statesman,” in the “Little Review” (Chicago), and in “Poetry” (Chicago).

CONTENTS

PART I

PAGE
Introduction[3]
The Method of Translation[19]
Bibliographical Notes[21]
Chapter I:
Battle[23]
The Man-Wind and the Woman-Wind[24]
Master Tēng-t’u[26]
The Orphan[27]
The Sick Wife[29]
Cock-Crow Song[30]
The Golden Palace[31]
“Old Poem”[32]
Meeting in the Road[32]
Fighting South of the Castle[33]
The Eastern Gate[34]
Old and New[35]
South of the Great Sea[35]
The Other Side of the Valley[36]
Oaths of Friendship[37]
Burial Songs[38]
Seventeen Old Poems[39]-[48]
The Autumn Wind[48]
Li Fu-jēn[49]
Song of Snow-white Heads[50]
To his Wife[51]
Li Ling[52]
Lament of Hsi-chün[53]
Ch’in Chia[53]
Ch’in Chia’s Wife’s Reply[54]
Song[55]
Chapter II:
Satire on Paying Calls in August[57]
On the Death of his Father[58]
The Campaign against Wu[59]
The Ruins of Lo-yang[60]
The Cock-fight[61]
A Vision[62]
The Curtain of the Wedding Bed[63]
Regret[63]
Taoist Song[64]
A Gentle Wind[64]
Woman[65]
Day Dreams[66]
The Scholar in the Narrow Street[66]
The Desecration of the Han Tombs[67]
Bearer’s Song[68]
The Valley Wind[69]
Chapter III:
Poems by T’ao Ch’ien[71]-[79]
Chapter IV:
Inviting Guests[81]
Climbing a Mountain[81]
Sailing Homeward[82]
Five “Tzŭ-yeh” Songs[83]
The Little Lady of Ch’ing-hsi[84]
Plucking the Rushes[84]
Ballad of the Western Island in the North Country[84]
Song[86]
Song of the Men of Chin-ling[86]
The Scholar Recruit[87]
The Red Hills[87]
Dreaming of a Dead Lady[88]
The Liberator[89]
Lo-yang[89]
Winter Night[90]
The Rejected Wife[90]
People hide their Love[91]
The Ferry[91]
The Waters of Lung-t’ou[92]
Flowers and Moonlight on the Spring River[92]
Tchirek Song[93]
Chapter V:
Business Men[95]
Tell me now[95]
On Going to a Tavern[96]
Stone Fish Lake[96]
Civilization[97]
A Protest in the Sixth Year of Ch’ien Fu[97]
On the Birth of his Son[98]
The Pedlar of Spells[98]
Boating in Autumn[99]
The Herd-boy[99]
How I sailed on the Lake till I came to the Eastern Stream[100]
A Seventeenth-century Chinese Poem[100]

PART II

PAGE
Introduction[105]
By Po Chü-i:
An Early Levée[115]
Being on Duty all night in the Palace and dreaming of the Hsien-yu Temple[116]
Passing T’ien-mēn Street in Ch’ang-an and seeing a distant View of Chung-nan Mountain[116]
The Letter[117]
Rejoicing at the Arrival of Ch’ēn Hsiung[118]
Golden Bells[119]
Remembering Golden Bells[120]
Illness[120]
The Dragon of the Black Pool[121]
The Grain-tribute[123]
The People of Tao-chou[123]
The Old Harp[125]
The Harper of Chao[125]
The Flower Market[126]
The Prisoner[127]
The Chancellor’s Gravel-drive[131]
The Man who Dreamed of Fairies[132]
Magic[134]
The Two Red Towers[135]
The Charcoal-seller[137]
The Politician[138]
The Old Man with the Broken Arm[139]
Kept waiting in the Boat at Chiu-k’ou Ten Days by an adverse Wind[142]
On Board Ship: Reading Yüan Chēn’s Poems[142]
Arriving at Hsün-yang[143]
Madly Singing in the Mountains[144]
Releasing a migrant “Yen” (wild Goose)[145]
To a Portrait Painter who desired him to sit[146]
Separation[147]
Having climbed to the topmost Peak of the Incense-burner Mountain[148]
Eating Bamboo-shoots[149]
The Red Cockatoo[149]
After Lunch[150]
Alarm at first entering the Yang-tze Gorges[150]
On being removed from Hsün-yang and sent to Chung-chou[151]
Planting Flowers on the Eastern Embankment[152]
Children[153]
Pruning Trees[154]
Being visited by a Friend during Illness[155]
On the way to Hangchow: Anchored on the River at Night[155]
Stopping the Night at Jung-yang[156]
The Silver Spoon[156]
The Hat given to the Poet by Li Chien[157]
The Big Rug[157]
After getting Drunk, becoming Sober in the Night[158]
Realizing the Futility of Life[158]
Rising Late and Playing with A-ts’ui, aged Two[159]
On a Box containing his own Works[160]
On being Sixty[161]
Climbing the Terrace of Kuan-yin and looking at the City[162]
Climbing the Ling Ying Terrace and looking North[162]
Going to the Mountains with a little Dancing Girl, aged Fifteen[163]
Dreaming of Yüan Chēn[163]
A Dream of Mountaineering[164]
Ease[165]
On hearing someone sing a Poem by Yüan Chēn[165]
The Philosophers[166]
Taoism and Buddhism[167]
Last Poem[168]