Chinese 323 Writing a Letter (1)

 

Cai Yong/Ts'ai Yung (132-192)

"Song: I watered My Horse at the Long Wall Caves" (Lines 13-20)

...

A guest comes from afar,

Bringing me a pair of carps

 

I call a servant to cook them,

In them is a letter on a foot of silk.

 

Lingering on my knees, I read the silk letter.

What does it say?

 

It begins with an offering to eat,

And ends with a long longing.

 

 

Chen Lin/Ch'en Lin (d. 217)

"Song: I watered My Horse at the Long Wall Caves"

 

I watered my horse at the Long Wall caves,

water so cold it hurts his bones;

I went and spoke to the Long Wall boss:

"We're soldiers from Taiyuan--will you keep us here forever?"

"Public works go according to schedule--

swing your hammer, pitch your voice in with the rest!"

A man'd be better off to die in battle

than eat his heart out building the Long Wall!

The Long Wall--how it winds and winds,

winds and winds three thousand li;

here on the border, so many strong boys;

in the house back home, so many widows and wives.

I sent a letter to my wife:

"Better remarry than wait any longer--

serve your new mother-in-law with care

and sometimes remember the husband you once had."

In answer her letter came to the border:

"What nonsense do you write me now?

Now when you're in the thick of danger,

how could I rest by another man's side?"

(HE)

If you bear a son, don't bring him up!

But a daughter--feed her good dried meat.

Only you can't see, here by the Long Wall,

the bones of the dead men heaped about!

(SHE)

I bound up my hair and went to serve you;

constant constant was the care of my heart.

Too well I know your borderland troubles;

and I--can I go on like this much longer?

 

(Burton Watson, The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry, pp. 107-8)

 

 

Wang Changling/Wang Ch'ang-ling (698-757)

"Seeing Off Xin Jian at Hibiscus Pavilion: Two Poems"

 

I.

 

Cold rain extends the river as I enter Wu at night,

Next morning when I see off a friend Mt. Chu is lonely.

If relatives and friends in Loyang inquire after me,

Simply answer--a piece of icy heart in a jade vase.

 

 

Cen Shen/Ts'en Shen (715-770)

"Meeting an Envoy on His Way to the Capital"

 

I gaze back east to my homeland,

the road stretches on and on;

My two sleeves are drenched

with tears that never dry.

I meet you now on horse back,

no brush, no paper;

So I trust you to take them word for me:

tell them I'm just fine.

 

 

Zhang Ji/Chang Chi (768-ca. 830)

"Autumn Thoughts"

 

In the city of Loyang

I saw the autumn wind;

I wanted to write a letter home,

each thought led to thousand more.

Then I worried that in my haste

I hadn't said all I should--

The bearer was ready to leave,

and I open the seal again.

 

 

Bo Juyi/Bai Juyi/Po Chü-i/Po Chü-yi (771-846)

"The Letter"

(After I parted with Yuan Zhen, I suddenly dreamt one night that I saw him. When I awoke, I found that a letter from him had just arrived and, enclosed in it, a poem on the paulownia flower.)

 

We talked together in the Yongshou Temple:

We parted to the north of the Xinchang dyke.

Going home--I shed a few tears,

Grieving about things--not sorry for you.

Long, long the road to Lantian;

You said yourself you would not be able to write.

Reckoning up your halts for eating and sleeping--

By this time you've crossed the Shang mountains.

Last night the clouds scattered away;

A thousand leagues, the same moonlight scene.

When dawn came, I dreamt I saw your face;

It must have been that you were thinking of me.

In my dream, I thought I held your hand

And asked you to tell me what your thoughts were.

And you said: "I miss you bitterly,

But there's no one here to send to you with a letter."

When I awoke, before I had time to speak,

A knocking on the door sounded "Doong, doong!"

They came and told me a messenger from Shangzhou

Had brought a letter--a single scroll from you!

Up from my pillow I suddenly sprang out of bed,

And threw on my clothes, all topsy-turvy.

I undid the knot and saw the letter within;

A single sheet with thirteen lines of writing.

At the top it told the sorrows of an exile's heart;

At the bottom it described the pains of separation.

The sorrows and pains took up so much space

There was no room left to talk about the whether!

But you said that when you wrote

You were staying for the night to the east of Shangzhou;

Sitting alone, lighted by a solitary candle

Lodging in the mountain hostel of Yangcheng.

Night was late when you finished writing,

The mountain moon was slanting towards the west.

What is it lies aslant across the moon?

A single tree of purple paulownia flowers--

Paulownia flowers just on the point of falling

Are a symbol to express "thinking of an absent friend."

Lovingly--you wrote on the back side,

To send in the letter, your "Poem of the Paulownia Flower."

The Poem of the Paulownia Flower has eight rhymes;

Yet these eight couplets have cast a spell on my heart.

They have taken hold of this morning's thoughts

And carried them to yours, the night you wrote your letter.

The whole poem I read three times;

Each verse ten times I recite.

So precious to me are the fourscore words

That each letter changes into a bar of gold!"