Watering Horses at a Long Wall1 Hole
Anonymous or Attributed to Ts’ai Yung (133–192)
Green, green riverside grass.2
Skeins, skeins of longing for the far road,
The far road I cannot bear to long for.
In bed at night I see him in dreams,
Dream I see him by my side.
Suddenly I wake in another town,
Another town, each in different parts.
I toss and turn, see him no more.
Withered mulberry knows wind from the skies,
Ocean waters know chill from the skies.
I go indoors, everyone self-absorbed,
Who wants to speak for me?
A traveler came from far away,
He brought me a double-carp.3
I call my children and cook the carp.
Inside there is a white silk letter.
I kneel down and read the white silk letter.
What does it say in the letter, then?
Above it has “Try and eat!”
Below it has “I’ll always love you.”
Translated by Anne Birrell
Ts’ai Yung, from Honan, was a well-known poet, musician, and calligrapher. He was well versed in astronomy and musical theory, and redacted the authorized version of the six Confucian classics. Later he incurred the displeasure of the authorities and was condemned to death, the sentence commuted to having his hair pulled out. Eventually Ts’ai became a recluse. When the warlord Tung Cho challenged the Han dynasty he summoned Ts’ai to court, inviting him to take office and ennobling him as a marquis. At Tung’s defeat, Ts’ai was again imprisoned for an indiscreet remark, and he died in jail. He was known by the colorful nickname “Drunken Dragon” for his drinking bouts. Ts’ai was the subject of a play by the fourteenth-century playwright Kao Ming, who portrayed him in less than flattering terms. The title of the play is “The Lute.”
1. The “long wall” was part of a system of defensive fortifications that was built starting from the Chou period and was linked up more closely during the Ch’in period. It ultimately came to be part of the group of fortified barriers now known collectively as the Great Wall.
2. Compare the first line of selection 135.
3. In the old poems a letter was sometimes carried in a container shaped like a fish, which was said to be “cooked” when opened. The carp is a prolific fish, and the double carp was probably an emblem of fertility or wedded bliss.