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Liu K’o-chuang (1187–1269) was from Putien in Fukien province and was one of the leading literary critics of his time. He was also its most prolific writer and was considered the most important poet of the Rivers and Lakes school of poetry. Although he served in important posts in the Ministry of Works and the Central Secretariat, he became disgusted by court politics and spent his final decade living in simple circumstances in the countryside. Liu was reportedly the original compiler of this anthology—though his arrangement was topical rather than based on formal and seasonal categories, and this poem must have been added by a later compiler in honor of Liu’s earlier efforts. The images of the first line are indebted to the poem “Cutting Wood” in the Hsiaoya section of the Book of Odes: “They come from dark valleys / they settle among treetops / twittering they call / in search of a friend.”

The Oriole Shuttle

LIU K’O-CHUANG

Through the willows to the treetops so full of feeling

twittering on the wing they sound like a loom

Loyang in April is a tapestry of flowers

but it takes so much effort to weave