Read The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry Online
Authors: Tony Barnstone
The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry (13 page)
While the
Book of Songs
consists primarily of poems in a lyric mode, the
Verses of Chu
are longer narratives, more dramatic in nature. In addition to the extended narrative poem
Encountering Sorrow
, the collection includes a set of shamanistic ritual songs in which the shaman joins sexually with the deity (the “Nine
Songs”); the “Heavenly Questions,” a riddling, gnomic series of questions about the origin of the cosmos, mythology, and Chinese history; “Far Journey,” a celestial voyage that bears resemblance to
Encountering Sorrow;
the “Nine Arguments,” attributed to Song Yu (fourth to third century bce), a series of poems that is the origin of later evocations of the melancholy associated with autumn, such as Du Fu's “Autumn Thoughts;” “The Fisherman,” a dialogue in which a fisherman advises Qu Yuan not to abandon office and commit suicide; and a series of three poems, two of them shamanistic in nature, that are summons to the soul, or to a virtuous gentleman to come out of retirement.
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Days and months sped by, never halting;
springs and autumns gave way to each other.
I thought how the grass and trees wither and go bare,
and feared that my Fair One, too, would grow old.
Hold fast to youth, cast off what is foul!
Why won't you change your ways?
Harness your fine steeds, gallop abroad!
Come, I'll go before you to lead the way.
So pure the virtue of those three ancient lords
that all fragrant things flocked around them.
1
With the pepper of Shen they mingled dwarf cinnamon,
had more than mere heliotrope and angelica.
2
And Yao and Shun, shining in splendor—
they followed the Way, found the right road;
but Chieh and Chou in depravity
hurried by bypaths, stumbling at each step.
3
Men of that ilk enjoy stolen pleasures,
their road dark and shadowy, peril all around.
It's not that I tremble for my own safety,
I dread the overturn of my lord's carriage!
Swiftly I will run before and behind it
till we find ourselves in the tracks of former kings.
But he fails to perceive my inner feelings;
instead, heeding slander, he turns on me in rage.
My frank counsels bring me only trouble, I know,
but I must endure it, I cannot desist.
I point to the ninth heaven as witness of my uprightness—
all this I do solely for my Godly One.
Once he talked to me in open words,
but later regretted it and took to other ways.
I'm not afraid to be cut off from him,
only sorrow that my Godly One should be so fickle.
With repeated sighs I wipe my tears,
grieved that this life should be so thick with woes.
I do what is just and good, yet they tie and bind me;
I give admonitions at dawn, by evening I am banished.
Banished, I fashion a sash of heliotrope,
add to it angelica I've gathered.
So long as my heart tells me this is right
I will die nine deaths with no regret.
But it wounds me that my Godly One should be so rash and heedless;
never will he look into a person's heart. His other women envy my moth eyebrows; gossiping, slandering, they say I love wicked ways.
4
The clever carpenters who follow the times
reject rule and T square to fashion their own measure,
turn their back on chalk and line in favor of the crooked,
make accommodation their only rule.
Bitterly downcast in my frustration,
in such times I alone suffer hardship and want.
Better to die at once as a wandering exile—
I could never bear to do what those others do!
The swift-winged bird does not travel with the flock;
from times past this has been so.
How can square and round be made to fit together,
how can those who travel different roads plan for one another?
But to humble the heart and curb the will,
suffer censure, put up with shame,
hold fast to purity and whiteness, die for the right—
this the ancient sages heartily extolled.
Fording the Yüan and Hsiang, I journeyed south,
visited Ch'ung-hua and stated my case.
5
“Ch'i's Nine Arguments and Nine Songs—
these the Hsia rulers loved, indulging their desires.
They failed to heed danger, to consider the ages to come,
and so Wu-kuan brought contention to the ruling house.
6
Yi wandered recklessly, too eager for the chase;
he loved to shoot the big foxes.
But wild and disorderly ways seldom end right,
and Han Cho was there to covet his wife.
7
Chiao dressed himself in stout armor,
gave way to desires without restraint,
daily losing himself in sport and pleasure,
until his head came tumbling down.
8
Chieh of the Hsia violated the norms
and thus in the end encountered disaster.
Lord Hsin pickled the flesh of others
and hence the rule of Yin lasted no longer.
9
T'ang and Yü were solemn, pious, respectful;
Chou
10
expounded the Way and committed no error;
they promoted men of worth, employed the able,
followed the chalk and line without partiality.
August Heaven shows no favoritism;
it sees men's virtue and apportions its aid accordingly.
Only the sages and wise men flourish in action;
they indeed are worthy to rule these lands below.
I have viewed what went before, scrutinized what came after,
observing the standards that guide men's conduct.
Who, if not righteous, can ever rule,
who, if not good, can oversee affairs?
I have placed myself in peril, drawn close to death,
but as I look back at my former ways I have no regret.
Trying to shape a peg without thought for the hole it must fit—
even the ancient worthies met misfortune that way.
I sigh in my gloom and melancholy,
sad that the times I live in are so uncongenial.
Picking tender heliotrope, I wipe away the tears,
tears that wet my collar in wave on wave.”
I gathered bindweed, bamboo slips for divination,
commissioned Ling Fen to tell my fortune.
11
“Two beautiful ones are certain to come together,” he said.
“Who is truly fair and yet lacks admirers?
Consider the breadth and vastness of these Nine Provinces—
12
why should you think of those women only?
Dare to range farther afield, put off doubt—
who in search of beauty would pass you by?
What region is without its fragrant grasses?
Why must you pine for your old land?”
But the age is benighted, blinded, and confused;
who claims it can discern the good and bad in me?
People may differ in likes and dislikes,
but these cliquish ones—they're a breed apart!
Each one sports mugwort stuffed in his waist
and avers that rare orchids are not fit to wear.
If they're so blind in their discernment of plants,
how could they gauge the worth of precious gems?
They scoop up rotten earth to fill their scent bags
and claim that the pepper of Shen lacks aroma.
How rich the rare jewels I wear at my sash,
but the crowd conspires to darken and conceal them.
Among such partisans, none can be trusted;
I fear in their envy they'll smash my treasures.
The times are discordant, too easily they shift—
how can I linger any longer?
Orchid and angelica have changed and lost their fragrance,
sweet flag and heliotrope have turned to mere grass.
Why have the fragrant plants of bygone days
now all gone to common mugwort and wormwood?
How could it be for any other reason?
The fault's that no one cares for beauty!
I thought that orchid could be trusted,
but he proved to have no substance, nothing but boasts.
He spurns beauty to run with the crowd,
yet expects to be ranked with the fragrant ones.
Pepper is all flattery and insolence,
and even prickly ash thinks he can fill a scent bag!
They strive to advance, work to gain admittance,
but what fragrance are they fit to offer?
Yet such, to be sure, is the current of the times—
who can fail to be affected?
If I see pepper and orchid
13
behaving thus,
what can I expect from cart-halt and river sage?
Only this girdle of mine is worthy of respect;
others scorn its beauty, but I go on as before.
Its teeming fragrance never falters,
its aroma to this day has yet to fade.
I will compose myself, think of my own pleasure,
go rambling once more in search of a mate.
Now while my adornments are at their finest
I'll seek her through every land high and low.
Ling Fen had already told me his auspicious augury;
I would choose a lucky day and commence my journey.
I broke a branch of carnelian to serve as food,
pounded carnelian fragments to make rations for the road.
I had flying dragons to draw my vehicle,
a carriage inlaid with jasper and ivory.
How could I band with those of different mind?
I would go far away, remove myself from them.
I turned my course toward the K'un-lan Mountains,
over distant roads rambling on and on,
hoisting clouds and rainbows to shield me from the sun,
sounding the tinkle of jeweled carriage bells.
In the morning I set off from the Ford of sHeaven,
14
by evening I had reached the westernmost limit.
Phoenixes reverently bore my banners,
soaring and dipping in solemn flight.
Suddenly my route took me to the Flowing Sands;
I traced the Red Waters,
15
ambling at my ease.
I beckoned dragons and horned dragons to bridge the ford for me,
commanding the Western Sovereign to let me pass over.
16
But the trail was long and rank with dangers
so I summoned a host of carriages to come and attend me.
Passing Pu-chou Mountain, I veered to the left,
17
pointing to the western sea as our destination.
I marshalled my chariots, a thousand in number,
their jeweled hubs aligned as they raced side by side,
my eight dragons drawing me, writhing and turning,
my cloud pennants fluttering and streaming on high.
I tried to curb my will, to slacken my pace,
but my spirit soared upward into distant regions.
I played the Nine Songs, danced the Shao music,
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stealing a brief day for enjoyment.
But as I ascended the bright reaches of heaven,
suddenly I looked down and saw my old home.
My groom was filled with sadness, and the horses in their longing pulled about in the reins and refused to go on.
19
It's over! In this land there's no one, no one who knows me! Why must I long for my old city?
Since there's no one I can join with in administering just rule, I will seek out P'eng Hsien in the place where he dwells.
20
Translated by Burton Watson
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Although most of the translations in this book are in the Pinyin transliteration system, in this poem and a few others we have respected the practice of those translators who prefer to use the Wade-Giles system.
1
Yü, T'ang, and Wu, founders of the Hsai, Shang, and Chou dynasties respec tively. For easier reading, I have divided the translation into sections on the basis of content, though there are no such divisions in the original poem.
2
Here and elsewhere the plant names, usually of aromatic or efficacious plants, are probably intended to represent actual adornments to the hero's dress and at the same time to symbolize his talents and superior moral qualities.
3
Yao and Shun are wise rulers of the time before Yü. Chieh and Chou are the evil rulers of the Hsia and Shang dynasties respectively.
4
Moth eyebrows are eyebrows shaped like moth antennae, a mark of femi nine beauty. In this passage the hero imagines himself as a beautiful woman.
5
The Yüan and Hsiang Rivers in Ch'u, south of the Yangtze. Ch'ung-hua is another name for the sage ruler Shun, said to be buried near the Hsiang.
6
Ch'i was a son of Yü, founder of the Hsia dynasty. He visited heaven and brought back the pieces of music mentioned here. Wu-kuan was a son of Ch'i.
7
Yi, noted as a skilled archer, usurped power from the Hsia rulers but spent all his time hunting and neglected government affairs. In time the high minis ter Han Cho had him murdered and married Yi's wife.
8
Chiao was the son of Han Cho and Yi's wife. Though he wielded power for a time, he was overthrown by a prince of the Hsia dynastic line.
9
Lord Hsin is another name for Chou, the evil last ruler of the Shang or Yin dynasty. Pickling the flesh of his associates was only one of the many heinous deeds he is charged with.
10
Chou here is the dynasty founded by the sage kings Wen and Wu to succeed the Shang dynasty, not the last ruler of the Shang, whose name is written with a different character.
11
Ling Fen is identified as an ancient expert in divination. Stalks were bound together and then broken to perform the divination.
12
The nine provinces of ancient China and, by extension, the world at large.
13
Commentators have attempted to identify “orchid,” “pepper,” and the other plants censured in this passage with persons at the Ch'u court, though with little evidence to go on.
14
A constellation in the eastern portion of the sky.
15
The name Flowing Sands probably refers to the desert areas north and west of China; the Red Waters refers to one of the four rivers that flow out of the K'un-lun Mountains, each of a different color.
16
The Western Sovereign is the mythical ruler Shao Hao, who in Chinese cosmology presides over the western direction.
17
Pu-chou Mountain serves as a pillar holding up heaven in the northwest sector. When Kung Kung, contending for power with the mythical ruler Chuan Hsü, butted his head against the mountain in rage, he caused heaven to tilt toward the northwest and the earth to sag in the opposite direction.
18
The Nine Songs of Ch'i: see footnote 6.
19
Luan appears to have been a musical term designating the concluding section of a musical selection. Here and in other works that imitate the Li Sao it denotes a reprise or summation of the poem.
20
Since P'eng Hsien is supposed to have committed suicide by drowning, commentators have traditionally taken the last line to refer to the hero's determination to do likewise. Ch'u culture abounds in legends of persons who drowned themselves in a river and thereafter became the tutelary deity of the river, and the hero of the Li Sao perhaps hopes for a similar apotheosis.