No More Learning

But you, newest song of the lot,
You are not old enough to have done much
mischief,
I will get you a green coat out of China
With dragons worked upon it,
I will get you the scarlet silk trousers
From the statue of the infant Christ at Santa
Maria Novella,
Lest they say we are lacking in taste, Or that there is no caste in this family.
29
? A Song of the Degrees
REST me with Chinese colours, For I think the glass is evil.
II
The wind moves above the wheat With a silver crashing,
A thin war of metal.
I have known the golden disc,
I have seen it melting above me.
I have known the stone-bright place, The hall of clear colours.
Ill
O glass subtly evil, confusion of colours !
O light bound and bent in, soul of the captive, WhyamIwarned? WhyamIsentaway? Why is your glitter full of curious mistrust ?
O glass subtle and cunning, O powdery gold ! O filaments of amber, two-faced iridescence !
30
? Ite
Go, my songs, seek your praise from the young and from the intolerant,
Move among the lovers of perfection alone. Seek ever to stand in the hard Sophoclean light And take your wounds from it gladly.
Dum Capitolium ScanJet
How many will come after me
singing as well as I sing, none better ;
Telling the heart of their truth
as I have taught them to tell it ;
Fruit of my seed,
my unnameable children.
Know then that I loved you from afore-time, Clear speakers, naked in the sun, untrammelled,
To KaXoV
EVEN in my dreams you have denied yourself to me
And sent me only your handmaids. 31
? The Study in Aesthetics
THE very small children in patched clothing, Being smitten with an unusual wisdom,
Stopped in their play as she passed them And cried up from their cobbles :
Guarda I Ahi, guarda I ch' e be'a ! *
But three years after this
I heard the young Dante, whose last name I do
not know
For there are, in Sirmione, twenty-eight young Dantes and thirty-four Catulli ;
And there had been a great catch of sardines, And his elders
Were packing them in the great wooden boxes For the market in Brescia, and he
Leapt about, snatching at the bright fish And getting in both of their ways ;
And in vain they commanded him to sta fermo ! And when they would not let him arrange
The fish in the boxes
He stroked those which were already arranged,
Murmuring for his own satisfaction This identical phrase :
Ch' e be'a.
And at this I was mildly abashed.
*
32
Bella.
? The Bellaires
Aus meinen grossen Schmerzen Mach' ich die kleinen Licder.
THE good Bellaires
Do not understand the conduct of this world's
affairs.
In fact they understood them so badly That they have had to cross the Channel.
Nine lawyers, four counsels, five judges and three proctors of the King,
Together with the respective wives, husbands, sisters and heterogeneous connections of the
good Bellaires,
Met to discuss their affairs ;
But the good Bellaires have so little understood
their affairs
That now there is no one at all
Who can understand any affair of theirs. Yet Fourteen hunters still eat in the stables of The good Squire Bellaire ;
But these may not suffer attainder,
33 D
? THE BELLAIRES
For they may not belong to the good Squire Bellaire
But to his wife.
On the contrary, if they do not belong to his wife,
He will plead
A " freedom from attainder "
For twelve horses and also for twelve boarhounds From Charles the Fourth ;
And a further freedom for the remainder
Of horses, from Henry the Fourth.
But the judges,
Being free of medieval scholarship, Will pay no attention to this,
And there will be only the more confusion, Replevin, estoppel, espavin and what not.
Nine lawyers, four counsels, etc. ,
Met to discuss their affairs,
But the sole result was bills
From lawyers to whom no one was indebted, And even the lawyers
Were uncertain who was supposed to be indebted to them.
Wherefore the good Squire Bellaire Resides now at Agde and Biaucaire.
To Carcassonne, Pui, and Alais He fareth from day to day, 34
? THE BELLAIRES
Or takes the sea air Between Marseilles And Beziers.
And for all this I have considerable regret, For the good Bellaires
Are very charming people.
The New Cake of Soap
Lo, how it gleams and glistens in the sun Like the cheek of a Chesterton.
35
? Salvationists
COME, my songs, let us speak of perfection We shall get ourselves rather disliked.
II
Ah yes, my songs, let us resurrect The very excellent term Rusticus.
Let us apply it in all its opprobrium To those to whom it applies.
And you may decline to make them immortal. For we shall consider them and their state
In delicate Opulent silence.
Ill
Come, my songs,
Let us take arms against this sea of stupidities-
Begining with Mumpodorus ;
And against this sea of vulgarities
Beginning with Nimmim ;
And against this sea of imbeciles
All the Bulmenian literati.
36
? Epitaph
LETJCIS, who intended a Grand Passion, Ends with a willingness-to-oblige.
Andes
THE bashful Arides
Has married an ugly wife,
He was bored with his manner of life,
Indifferent and discouraged he thought he might as
Well do this as anything else.
Saying within his heart, " I am no use to myself, " Let her, if she wants me, take me. "
He went to his doom.
37
? The Bath Tub
As a bathtub lined with white porcelain,
When the hot water gives out or goes tepid,
So is the slow cooling of our chivalrous passion,
O my much praised but-not-altogether-satis- factory lady.
? Amities
Old friends the most. w. B. y.
To one, on returning certain years after. You wore the same quite correct clothing,
You took no pleasure at all in my triumphs, You had the same old air of condescension
Mingled with a curious fear
That I, myself, might have enjoyed them.
Te voila, man Bourrienne, you also shall be immortal.
II
To another.
And we say good-bye to you also,
For you seem never to have discovered
That your relationship is wholly parasitic ; Yet to our feasts you bring neither
Wit, nor good spirits, nor the pleasing attitudes
Of discipleship.
39
? AMITIES
III
But you, bos amic, we keep on, Fortoyouweowearealdebt:
In spite of your obvious flaws,
You once discovered a moderate chop-house.
IV
Iste fuit vir incultus,
Deo laus, quod est sepultus, Vermes habent eius vultum
Ego autem jovialis Gaudero contubernalis
Cum jocunda femina.
40
A-a-a-a A-men.
? Meditatio
WHEN I carefully consider the curious habits of
dogs
I am compelled to conclude
That man is the superior animal.
When I consider the curious habits of man I confess, my friend, I am puzzled.
To Dives
WHO am I to condemn you,
I who am as much embittered
With poverty
As you are with useless riches ?
Dives,
? Ladies
Agathas.
FOUR and forty lovers had Agathas in the old
days,
All of whom she refused ;
And now she turns to me seeking love, And her hair also is turning.
Young Lady.
I have fed your lar with poppies,
I have adored you for three full years ;
And now you grumble because your dress does
not fit
And because I happen to say so.
Lesbia Ilia
Memnon, Memnon, that lady
Who used to walk about amongst us
With such gracious uncertainty, Is now wedded
To a British householder.
Lugete, VeneresI Lugete, CupidinesqueI 42
? LADIES
Passing
Flawless as Aphrodite, Thoroughly beautiful,
Brainless,
The faint odour of your patchouli,
Faint, almost, as the lines of cruelty about your chin,
Assails me, and concerns me almost as little.
43
? Phyllidula
PHYLLIDULA is scrawny but amorous, Thus have the gods awarded her
That in pleasure she receives more than she can
give,
If she does not count this blessed
Let her change her religion.
The Patterns
ERINNA is a model parent,
Her children have never discovered her adulteries,
Lalage is also a model parent, Her offspring are fat and happy.
Coda
O MY songs,
Why do you look so eagerly and so curiously into
people's faces,
Will you find your lost dead among them ?
44
? The Seeing Eye
THE small dogs look at the big dogs ; They observe unwieldy dimensions And curious imperfections of odour.
Here is a formal male group :
The young men look upon their seniors, They consider the elderly mind
And observe its inexplicable correlations.
Said Tsin-Tsu :
It is only in small dogs and the young That we find minute observation.
45
? Ancora
GOOD God !
O canzonetti !
We who went out into the four A. M. of the world
Composing our albas,
We who shook oft our dew with the rabbits,
We who have seen even Artemis a-binding her
sandals,
Have we ever heard the like ? OmountainsofHellas! !
Gather about me, O Muses !
When we sat upon the granite brink in Helicon Clothed in the tattered sunlight,
O Muses with delicate shins,
O Muses with delectable knee-joints,
When we splashed and were splashed with
The lucid Castalian spray, Hadweeversuchanepithetcastuponus! !
They say you are risque,
? A TEANSLATION
FROM THE PROVENCAL OP EN BERTRANS DE BORN.
"Dompna pois de me no'us cal"
LADY, since you care nothing for me,
And since you have shut me away from you
Causelessly,
I know not where to go seeking,
For certainly
I will never again gather
Joy so rich, and if I find not ever
A lady with look so speaking
To my desire, worth yours whom I have lost, I'll have no other love at any cost.
And since I could not find a peer to you,
Neither one so fair, nor of such heart,
So eager and alert, Nor with such art
In attire, nor so gay
Nor with gift so bountiful and so true,
47
? "DOMPNA POIS DE ME NO'US CAL"
I will go out a-searching, Culling from each a fair trait
To make me a borrowed lady Till I again find you ready.
Bels Cembelins, I take of you your colour,
For it's your own, and your glance Where love is,
A proud thing I do here, For, as to colour and eyes
I shall have missed nothing at all,
Having yours.
I ask of Midons Aelis (of Montfort)
Her straight speech free-running,
That my phantom lack not in cunning.
At Chalais of the Viscountess, I would
That she give me outright Her two hands and her throat,
So take I my road To Rochechouart,
Swift-foot to my Lady Anhes,
Seeing that Tristan's lady Iseutz had never
Such grace of locks, I do ye to wit, Though she'd the far fame for it.
Of Audiart at Malemort, Though she with a full heart Wish me ill,
I'd have her form that's laced
48
? " DOMPNA POIS DE ME NO'US CAL "
So cunningly,
Without blemish, for her love
Breaks not nor turns aside. I of Miels-de-ben demand
Her straight fresh body,
She is so supple and young,
Her robes can but do her wrong.
Her white teeth, of the Lady Faidita I ask, and the fine courtesy
She hath to welcome one,
And such replies she lavishes
Within her nest ;
Of Bels Mirals, the rest, Tall stature and gaiety,
To make these avail
She knoweth well, betide
No change nor turning aside.
Ah, Bels Senher, Maent, at last
I ask naught from you,
Save that I have such hunger for
This phantom
As I've for you, such flame-lap, And yet I'd rather
Ask of you than hold another, Mayhap, right close and kissed.
Ah, lady, why have you cast
Me out, knowing you hold me so fast !
49 E
? The Coming of War: Actaeon
AN image of Lethe, and the fields
Full of faint light
but golden, Gray cliffs,
and beneath them
A sea
Harsher than granite,
unstill, never ceasing ; High forms
with the movement of gods, Perilous aspect ;
And one said : " This is Actaeon. "
Actaeon of golden greaves !
Over fair meadows,
Over the cool face of that field,
Unstill, ever moving, Hosts of an ancient people,
The silent cortege.
50
? After Ch'u Yuan
I WILL get me to the wood
Where the gods walk garlanded in wistaria, By the silver blue flood
move others with ivory cars. There come forth many maidens
to gather grapes for the leopards, my friend, For there are leopards drawing the cars.
I will walk in the glade,
I will come out of the new thicket
and accost the procession of maidens.
Liu Ch'e
THE rustling of the silk is discontinued, Dust drifts over the court-yard,
There is no sound of foot-fall, and the leaves Scurry into heaps and lie still,
And she the rejoicer of the heart is beneath them:
A wet leaf that clings to the threshold.
51 E2
? Fan-piece, for her Imperial Lord
FAN of white silk,
clear as frost on the grass-blade,
You also are laid aside.
Ts'ai Chi'h
THE petals fall in the fountain,
the orange-coloured rose-leaves, Their ochre clings to the stone.
52
? In a Station of the Metro
THE apparition of these faces in the crowd ; Petals on a wet, black bough.
Alba
As cool as the pale wet leaves
of lily-of-the-valley She lay beside me in the dawn.
Heather
THE black panther treads at my side,
And above my fingers
There float the petal-like flames.
The milk-white girls
Unbend from the holly-trees, And their snow-white leopard Watches to follow our trace.
53
? The Faun
HA ! sir, I have seen you sniffing and snoozling about
among my flowers. And what, pray, do you know about horticulture,
you capriped ?
"Come, Auster, come, Apeliota, And see the faun in our garden.
But if you move or speak This thing will run at you And scare itself to spasms. "
Coitus
THE gilded phaloi of the crocuses
are thrusting at the spring air. Here is there naught of dead gods
But a procession of festival,
A procession, Giulio Romano, Fit for your spirit to dwell in.
Dione, your nights are upon us.
The dew is upon the leaf.
The night about us is restless.
? The Encounter
ALL the while they were talking the new morality
Her eyes explored me. And when I arose to go
Her fingers were like the tissue Of a Japanese paper napkin.
Tempera
Io! lo! Tamuz!
The Dryad stands in my court-yard With plaintive, querulous crying.
Io!
Oh, no, she is not
(Tamuz.
Tamuz ! )
crying :
says, May my poems printed
She "
The god Pan is afraid to ask you, May my poems be printed this week ?
55
" Tamuz. "
be thisweek? "
? Black Slippers: Bellotti
AT the table beyond us
With her little suede slippers off,
With her white-stocking'd feet
Carefully kept from the floor by a napkin, She converses :
Connaissez-vous Ostende?
The gurgling Italian lady on the other side of the
restaurant
Replies with a certain hauteur,
But I await with patience
To see how Celestine will re-enter her slippers. She re-enters them with a groan.
Society
THE family position was waning,
And on this account the little Aurelia,
Who had laughed on eighteen summers, Now bears the palsied contact of Phidippus.
56
? Image
from D'Orleans
YOUNG men riding in the street In the bright new season
Spur without reason, Causing their steeds to leap.
And at the pace they keep Their horses' armoured feet
Strike sparks from the cobbled street In the bright new season.
Papyrus
Spring. . . Too long. . .
Gongula. . .
"lone, Dead the Long Year"
EMPTY are the ways,
Empty are the ways of this land And the flowers
Bend over with heavy heads. They bend in vain.
Empty are the ways of this land Where lone
Walked once, and now does not walk
But seems like a person just gone. 57
? THY soul
Grown delicate with satieties, Atthis.
I long for thy lips.
I long for thy narrow breasts, Thou restless, ungathered.
Atthis,
Shop Girl
FOR a moment she rested against me Like a swallow half blown to the wall, And they talk of Swinburne's women,
And the shepherdess meeting with Guido, And the harlots of Baudelaire.
58
? To Formianus' Young Lady Friend AFTER VALERIUS CATULLUS
ALL Hail ! young lady with a nose
by no means too small,
With a foot unbeautiful,
and with eyes that are not black,
With fingers that are not long, and with a mouth
undry,
And with a tongue by no means too elegant,
You are the friend of Formianus, the vendor of
cosmetics,
And they call you beautiful in the province, And you are even compared to Lesbia.
O most unfortunate age !
59
? Tame Cat
" IT rests me to be among beautiful women. Why should one always lie about such matters ?
I repeat :
It rests me to converse with beautiful women
Even though we talk nothing but nonsense,
The purring of the invisible antennae Is both stimulating and delightful. "
1910
GREEN arsenic smeared on an egg-white cloth,
Crushed strawberries ! eyes.
60
L'Art,
Come, let us feast our
? Simulacra
WHY does the horse-faced lady of just the un- mentionable age
Walk down Longacre reciting Swinburne to herself,
inaudibly ?
Why does the small child in the soiled-white
imitation fur coat
Crawl in the very black gutter beneath the grape
stand ?
Why does the really handsome young woman
approach me in Sackville Street
Undeterred by the manifest age of my trappings ?
Women Before a Shop
THE gew-gaws of false amber and false turquoise attract them.
" Like to like yellows !
nature "
61
:
these
agglutinous
? Epilogue
O CHANSONS foregoing
You were a seven days' wonder,
When you came out in the magazines You created considerable stir in Chicago,
And now you are stale and worn out,
You're a very depleted fashion, A hoop-skirt, a calash,
An homely, transient antiquity.
Only emotion remains. Your emotions ?
Are those of a maitre-de-cafe.
62
?
The Social Order
I
THIS government official,
Whose wife is several years his senior, Has such a caressing air
When he shakes hands with young ladies.
II (Pompes Funebres)
This old lady,
Who was "so old that she was an atheist,"
Is now surrounded
By six candles and a crucifix,
While the second wife of a nephew
Makes hay with the things in her house.
Her two cats
Go before her into Avernus ;
A sort of chloroformed suttee,
And it is to be hoped that their spirits will walk With their tails up,
And with a plaintive, gentle mewing,
For it is certain that she has left on this earth
No sound
Save a squabble of female connections.
63
? The Tea Shop
THE girl in the tea shop
is not so beautiful as she was,
The August has worn against her.
She does not get up the stairs so eagerly,
Yes, she also will turn middle-aged,
And the glow of youth that she spread about us
as she brought us our muffins Will be spread about us no longer.
She also will turn middle-aged,
64
? Epitaphs
Fu I
Fu I loved the high cloud and the hill, Alas, he died of alcohol
Li Po
And Li Po also died drunk. He tried to embrace a moon In the Yellow River.
Our Contemporaries
WHEN the Taihaitian princess
Heard that he had decided,
She rushed out into the sunlight and swarmed up
a cocoanut palm tree,
But he returned to this island
And wrote ninety Petrarchan sonnets.
NOTE. II s'agit d'un jeune poete qui a suivi le culte de
Gauguin jusqu'a Tahiti meme (et qui vit encore). ^]tant fort bel homme, quand la princesse bistre entendit qu'il voulait lui accorder ses faveurs elle montra son allegresse de la faon dont nous venons de paiier. Malheureusement ses poemes ne
sont remplis que de ses propres subjectivites, style Victorien de
la
"
Georgian Anthology. "
65 F
? Ancient Wisdom, Rather Cosmic
SO-SHTJ dreamed,
And having dreamed that he was a bird, a bee,
and a butterfly,
He was uncertain why he should try to feel like
anything else,
Hence his contentment.
The Three Poets
CANDIDIA has taken a new lover
And three poets are gone into mourning.
The first has written a long elegy to " Chloris," To "Chloris chaste and cold," his "only Chloris. ' The second has written a sonnet
upon the mutability of woman, And the third writes an epigram to Candidia.
66
1
? The Gipsy
" Est-ce que vous avez vu des autres des camarades avec des
"
AStrayGipsy A. D. 1912.
THAT was the top of the walk, when he said :
"Have you seen any others, any of our lot,
"" With apes or bears ?
A brown upstanding fellow
Not like the half-castes,
up on the wet road near Clermont.
The wind came, and the rain,
And mist clotted about the trees in the valley, And I'd the long ways behind me,
gray Aries and Biaucaire,
"" And he said, Have you seen any of our lot ?
I'd seen a lot of his lot . . .
ever since Rhodez,
Coming down from the fair
of St. John,
With caravans, but never an ape or a bear.
67
singes ou des ours ?
? The Game of Chess
DOGMATIC STATEMENT CONCERNING THE GAME OF CHESS : THEME FOR A SERIES OF PICTURES
RED knights, brown bishops, bright queens,
Striking colour,
the in "L"s of board, falling strong
Beaching and striking in angles,
holding lines in one colour.
This board is alive with light ;
, these pieces are living in form, Their moves break and reform the pattern:
Luminous green from the rooks, Clashing with " X " s of queens,
looped with the knight-leaps.
"Y"
pawns, cleaving, embanking !
Whirl ! Centripetal ! Mate ! King down in the vortex,
Clash, leaping of bands? straight strips of hard colour,
Blocked lights working in. Escapes. Renewal of contest.
68
? Provincia Deserta
AT Rochecoart, Where the hills part
in three ways,
And three valleys, full of winding roads, Fork out to south and north,
There is a place of trees . . . gray with lichen, I have walked there
At Chalais
thinking of old days.
is a pleached arbour ;
Old pensioners and old protected women Have the right there
it is charity.
I have crept over old rafters,
peering down Over the Dronne,
over a stream full of lilies. Eastward the road lies,
Aubeterre is eastward, With a garrulous old man at the inn.
69 F2
? PROVINCIA DESERTA
I know the roads in that place : Mareuil to the north-east,
La Tour,
There are three keeps near Mareuil,
And an old woman,
glad to hear Arnaut, Glad to lend one dry clothing.
I have walked
into Perigord,
I have seen the torch-flames, high-leaping,
Painting the front of that church,
And, under the dark, whirling laughter. I have looked back over the stream
and seen the high building, Seen the long minarets, the white shafts.
I have gone in Ribeyrac and in Sarlat,
I have climbed rickety stairs, heard talk of Croy, Walked over En Bertran's old layout,
Have seen Narbonne, and Cahors and Chalus, Have seen Excideuil, carefully fashioned.
I have said :
" Here such a one walked. " Here Cceur-de-Lion was slain.
" Here was good singing. " Here one man hastened his step.
"Here one lay panting. " 70
? PROVINCIA DESERTA
I have looked south from Hautefort,
thinking of Montaignac, southward. I have lain in Rocafixada,
level with sunset, Have seen the copper come down
tinging the mountains,
I have seen the fields, pale, clear as an emerald,
Sharp peaks, high spurs, distant castles.
Ihavesaid "Theoldroadshavelainhere.
:
66 Men have gone by such and such valleys
" Where the great halls are closer together. "
I have seen Foix on its rock, seen Toulouse, and
Aries greatly altered,
I have seen the ruined " Dorata. "
"
Riquier !
I have said : Guido. "
I have thought of the second Troy,
Some little prized place in Auvergnat :
Two men tossing a com, one keeping a castle, One set on the highway to sing.
He sang a woman.
Auvergne rose to the song ;
The Dauphin backed him.
" The castle to Austors " !
" Pieire kept the singing " A fair man and a pleasant. "
He won the lady,
Stole her away for himself, kept her against armed force :
71
? PROVINCIA DESERTA
So ends that story.
That age is gone ;
Pieire de Maensac is gone.
I have walked over these roads ; I have thought of them living.
72
? CATHAY
FOR THE MOST PART FROM THE CHINESE OF RIHAKU, FROM THE NOTES OF THE LATE ERNEST FENOLLOSA, AND THE DECIPHERINGS
OF THE PROFESSORS MORI
AND ARIGA
? Song of the Bowmen of Shu
HERE we are, picking the first fern-shoots
And saying : When shall we get back to our
country ?
Here we are because we have the Ken-nin for our
foemen,
We have no comfort because of these Mongols.
We grub the soft fern-shoots,
When " the others are full anyone says Return,"
of sorrow.
Sorrowful minds, sorrow is strong, we are hungry
and thirsty.
Our defence is not yet made sure, no one can let
his friend return.
We grub the old fern-stalks.
Wesay: WillwebelettogobackinOctober? There is no ease in royal affairs, we have no
comfort.
Our sorrow is bitter, but we would not return to
our country.
What flower has come into blossom ?
Whose chariot ? The General's. 75
? grief ?
SONG OF THE BOWMEN OF SHU
Horses, his horses even, are tired. They were
strong.
We have no rest, three battles a month.
By heaven, his horses are tired.
The generals are on them, the soldiers are by
them
The horses are well trained, the generals have
ivory arrows and quivers ornamented with fish-
skin.
The enemy is swift, we must be careful.
When we set out, the willows were drooping with
spring,
We come back in the snow,
We go slowly, we are hungry and thirsty,
Our mind is full of sorrow, who will know of our
76
By Bunno. Very early.
? The Beautiful Toilet
BLUE, blue is the grass about the river
And the willows have overfilled the close garden. And within, the mistress, in the midmost of her
youth,
White, white of face, hesitates, passing the door. Slender, she puts forth a slender hand,
And she was a courtezan in the old days, And she has married a sot,
Who now goes drunkenly out And leaves her too much alone.
By Mei Sheng. B. C. 140.
77 a
? The River Song
THIS boat is of shato-wood, and its gunwales are
cut magnolia,
Musicians with jewelled flutes and with pipes of
gold
Fill full the sides in rows, and our wine
Is rich for a thousand cups.
We carry singing girls, drift with the drifting water,
Yet Sennin needs
A yellow stork for a charger, and all our seamen Would follow the white gulls or ride them.
Kutsu's prose song
Hangs with the sun and moon.
King So's terraced palace
is now but a barren hill,
But I draw pen on this barge
Causing the five peaks to tremble, And I have joy in these words
like the joy of blue islands. (If glorv could last forever
78
? each other, and listen,
"
Kwan, Kuan," the feel of it.
for the and early wind,
Crying
THE RIVER SONG
Then the waters of Han would flow northward. )
And I have moped in the Emperor's garden, awaiting an order-to-write !
I looked at the dragon-pond, with its willow- coloured water
Just reflecting the sky's tinge,
And heard the five-score nightingales aimlessly
singing.
The eastern wind brings the green colour into the
island grasses at Yei-shu,
The purple house and the crimson are full of
Spring softness.
South of the pond the willow-tips are half-blue
and bluer,
Their cords tangle in mist, against the brocade-
like palace.
Vine-strings a hundred feet long hang down from
carved railings,
And high over the willows, the fine birds sing to
The wind bundles itself into a bluish cloud and wanders off.
Over a thousand gates, over a thousand doors are
the sounds of spring singing, And the Emperor is at Ko.
Five clouds hang aloft, bright on the purple sky, "
79 G2
? THE RIVER SONG
The imperial guards come forth from the golden house with their armour a-gl earning.
The Emperor in his jewelled car goes out to inspect his flowers,
He goes out to Hori, to look at the wing-flapping storks,
He returns by way of Sei rock, to hear the new
nightingales,
For the gardens at Jo-run are full of new nightin-
gales,
Their sound is mixed in this flute,
Their voice is in the twelve pipes here.
8th century A. D.
80
By RihaJcu.
? The River-Merchant's Wife: a Letter
WHILE my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about the front gate, pulling flowers
You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse, You walked about my seat, playing with blue
plums.
And we went on living in the village of Chokan : Two small people, without dislike or suspicion.
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
I never laughed, being bashful.
Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.
Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back.
At fifteen I stopped scowling,
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours
Forever and forever, and forever. Why should I climb the look out ?
At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-Yen, by the river of
swirling eddies,
81
? THE RIVER MERCHANT'S WIFE
And you have been gone five months.
The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead. You dragged your feet when you went out.
By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different
mosses,
Too deep to clear them away !
The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
The paired butterflies are already yellow with
August
Over the grass in the West garden,
They hurt me.
I grow older,
If you are coming down through the narrows of
the river Kiang,
Please let me know beforehand, And I will come out to meet you,
As far as Cho-fu-Sa.
82
By Rihaku.
? The Jewel Stairs' Grievance
THE jewelled steps are already quite white with dew,
It is so late that the dew soaks
stockings,
And I let down the crystal curtain
my gauze
And watch the moon through the clear autumn. By Eihaku.
NOTE. Jewel stairs, therefore a palace. Grievance, there-
fore there is something to complain of. Gauze stockings, there- fore a court lady, not a servant who complains. Clear autumn,
thereforehehasnoexcuseonaccountofweather. Alsoshehas come early, for the dew has not merely whitened the stairs, but
has soaked her stockings. The poem is especially prized because she utters no direct reproach.
83
? Poem by the Bridge at Ten-Shin
MARCH has come to the bridge head.
Peach boughs and apricot boughs hang over a thousand gates,
At morning there are flowers to cut the heart,
And evening drives them on the eastward-flowing waters.
Petals are on the gone waters and on the going,
And on the back-swirling eddies,
But to-day's men are not the men of the old days,
Though they hang in the same way over the bridge-rail.
The sea's colour moves at the dawn
And the princes still stand in rows, about the
throne,
And the moon falls over the portals of Sei-go-yo, And clings to the walls and the gate-top.
With head gear glittering against the cloud and sun,
The lords go forth from the court, and into far borders.
84
? POEM BY THE BRIDGE AT TEN-SHIN
They ride upon dragon-like horses,
Upon horses with head-trappings of yellow metal, And the streets make way for their passage.
Haughty their passing,
Haughty their steps as they go into great
banquets,
To high halls and curious food,
To the perfumed air and girls dancing, To clear flutes and clear singing ;
To the dance of the seventy couples ; To the mad chase through the gardens.
Night and day are given over to pleasure
And they think it will last a thousand autumns,
Unwearying autumns.
For them the yellow dogs howl portents in vain, And what are they compared to the lady
Riokushu,
That was cause of hate !
Who among them is a man like Han-rei
Who departed alone with his mistress, With her hair unbound, and he his own skiffs-
man!
85
By RihaJcu.
? Lament of the Frontier Guard
BY the North Gate, the wind blows full of sand,
Lonely from the beginning of time until now !
Trees fall, the grass goes yellow with autumn. I climb the towers and towers
to watch out the barbarous land :
Desolate castle, the sky, the wide desert.
There is no wall left to this village.
Bones white with a thousand frosts,
High heaps, covered with trees and grass ;
Who brought this to pass ?
Who has brought the flaming imperial anger ? Who has brought the army with drums and with
kettle-drums ?
Barbarous kings.
A gracious spring, turned to blood-ravenous
autumn,
A turmoil of wars-men, spread over the middle
kingdom,
Three hundred and sixty thousand,
And sorrow, sorrow like rain.
Sorrow to go, and sorrow, sorrow returning, 86
? LAMENT OF THE FRONTIER GUARD
Desolate, desolate fields,
And no children of warfare upon them,
No longer the men for offence and defence. Ah, how shall you know the dreary sorrow at the
North Gate,
With Rihoku's name forgotten,
And we guardsmen fed to the tigers.
87
By EiJiaku.
? Exile's Letter
To So-Kin of Rakuyo, ancient friend, Chancellor of Gen.
Now I remember that you built me a special tavern By the south side of the bridge at Ten-Shin.
With yellow gold and white jewels, we paid for
songs and laughter
And we were drunk for month on month, forgetting
the kings and princes.
Intelligent men came drifting in from the sea and
from the west border,
And with them, and with you especially There was nothing at cross purpose,
And they made nothing of sea-crossing or of mountain crossing,
If only they could be of that fellowship,
And we all spoke out our hearts and minds, and
without regret.
And then I was sent off to South Wei, smothered in laurel groves,
And you to the north of Raku-hoku,
Till we had nothing but thoughts and memories in common.
88
? more Sennin music, Many instruments,
like the sound of young
EXILE'S LETTER
And then, when separation had come to its
worst,
We met, and travelled into Sen-Go,
Through all the thirty-six folds of the turning and twisting waters,
Into a valley of the thousand bright flowers, That was the first valley ;
And into ten thousand valleys full of voices and
pine-winds.
And with silver harness and reins of gold,
Out come the East of Kan foreman and his
company.
And there came also the " True man " of Shi-yo
to meet me,
Playing on a jewelled mouth-organ.
In the storied houses of San-Ko they gave us
phoenix broods.
The foreman of Kan Chu, drunk, danced
because his long sleeves wouldn't keep still
With that music playing.
And I, wrapped in brocade, went to sleep with my head on his lap,
And my spirit so high it was all over the
heavens,
And before the end of the day we were scattered
like stars, or rain.
89
? EXILE'S LETTER
I had to be off to So, far away over the waters, You back to your river-bridge.
And your father, who was brave as a leopard, Was governor in Hei Shu, and put down the
barbarian rabble.