Part 4 (1/2)
Nevermore to meet again.
[5] According to a Chinese legend the stars K'ien-Niu (Cowherd) and Chih-Nu (Spinning-Maid) are two lovers, doomed by the G.o.ds to live on opposite sides of the 'River of Stars' (Milky Way). As there is no bridge over this river, the two lovers can only stand afar and gaze at each other. (See note to 'The Swallow's Song'.)
_The Old Soldier's Return_
AN ANCIENT POEM: POET UNKNOWN
I was but fifteen when I left my friends For distant climes to fight our Country's foe, And now I'm eighty--back for the first time To see the home I left so long ago.
Where is the house? I should be near it now, Yet possibly I may have gone astray; Long years abroad have blurred the youthful brain, I'll ask this countryman to point the way.
'The house is yonder--midst those gra.s.sy mounds, Beneath the shade of fir and cypress trees, And there lie buried all the kith and kin Of former tillers of these fallow leas.'
The veteran sighed and wandered to the house, And found it overgrown and desolate; A startled hare fled through the kennel's hole, And pheasants flew from ceiling beams ornate.
Exhausted by the journey and his grief, The old man plucked some grain from patches wild, And mallows from around the courtyard well, As in the days when but a little child.
But when the homely fare was cooked and spread, And not a friend to cheer the lonely place, He rose, and going out to eastward gazed, While tears flowed down his worn and furrowed face.
_On the Lake near the Western Mountains_
BY CH'ANG KIEN.
T'ANG DYNASTY (ANCIENT STYLE)
Here at the foot-hills of the Western Mountains My boat rides idly on the current's trail, And in the lengthening radiance of the sunset It seems to chase its own reflected sail.
While in the rarer light that heralds evening The forms of all things clearer seem to grow; The forests and the glades and mountain ranges Catch added beauty from the afterglow.
The graceful minarets in cloudland floating From jadestone green take on a sombre hue, But still flush rose tints in the darkness falling, Although the sun has disappeared from view.
The shadows of the islands and the islets Stretch far across the surface of the lake; The evening mists that float above the waters Are bright as rain-clouds after showers break.
In the distance Tsu's[6] abounding forests Reveal their sombre outlines in the gloom; While on the farther sh.o.r.e the gates of King-chow Within the growing darkness faintly loom.
The atmosphere with nightfall groweth clearer, A north wind blows with shrill voice through the land; While on the sandy stretches by the waters The swan and stork in dreamy silence stand.
The waters now have ceased from restless heaving, My little boat is screened by rushes green; The moon emerging from the lake's horizon A soft light sheds upon the silent scene.
Amid the silence and the ghostly beauty I touch my lute to plaintive songs of old, And soon the pleasant strains and long-drawn cadence Have seized my senses in their subtle hold.
Thus in such ecstasy the hours pa.s.s quickly, And midnight comes with undetected speed; But now the heavy dew upon me falling Recalls my senses to the body's need.