Attributed to Hsi-chün (fl. 110 B.C.E.)
Preface
In the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty during the years 110–104 B.C.E., the emperor made Hsi-chün, daughter of the king of Chiangtu,1 a princess and married her off to Kunmi, the ruler of the Wusun tribe.2 When she reached their land, she settled in Kunmi’s palace. Through all those years she only met him once or twice, but did not speak to him. The princess became melancholy and composed a song3 that went like this:
My family married me to a lost horizon,
Sent me far away to the Wusun king’s strange land.
A canvas hut is my mansion, of felt its walls,
Flesh for food, mare’s milk to drink.
Longing ever for my homeland, my heart’s inner wound.
I wish I were the brown goose going to its old home.
Translated by Anne Birrell
1. Liu Chien. Since she was the daughter of the prince of Chiangtu, this made her a relative of Emperor Wu.
2. The apparently Indo-European Wusun people lived in the region of modern-day Lake Balkash and northwestern Sinkiang province.
3. This poem features the caesural sound-carrier particle hsi (ancient pronunciation *gig) in each line, reminiscent of the sao-song style of The Elegies of Ch’u (see selection 122).