Fu Hsüan (217–278)
Pity me! my body is female,
My lowly state is hard to describe.
A boy faces door and gate,
Comes down on earth with a natural birthright,
His manly heart burns for the four seas,
Ten thousand leagues he yearns for windy dust.
A girl is born, there is no celebration,
She is not her family’s prized jewel.
Grown up she is hidden in private rooms,
Veils her head, too shy to look on others.
Shedding tears she marries in another village,
Sudden like a cloudburst of rain.
With bowed head she calms her features,
White teeth clenched beneath red lips.
She kneels down countless times
To maids and concubines like grim guests.
Happy love is like Cloudy Han,1
Like mallow or bean that leans toward spring sun.
Loving hearts in conflict are worse than water on fire,
One hundred wrongs are heaped upon the girl.
Her jade face with the years alters,
Her husband takes many new loves.
Once they were form and shadow,
Now they are Hun and Chinese.
Hun and Chinese sometimes see each other.
Love once severed is remote as Antares and Orion.2
Translated by Anne Birrell
Born in Shensi, the poet rose from poverty and obscurity to wealth and fame through his literary talent. He served as censor and lord chamberlain under the Chin emperor Wu.
1. The celestial river, counterpart of the Milky Way in the West. It is also called Starry River, Long River, Long Han, Sky River, or River of Heaven. It was believed that the Yellow River on earth flowed from the Han River in the sky. This reference usually conjures up ideas of the amorous legend of the Weaver Girl and Herdboy stars. The Han River is seen as an obstacle between the stellar lovers as it is in full flood every night of the year except the seventh night of the seventh month. On that night the waters ebb, allowing the lovers to meet. Weaver Girl is sometimes called the Girl of the Han River.
2. In Chinese lore, these two astronomical bodies are believed to be quareling brothers who never meet. In equinoctial opposition, they symbolize estranged lovers or friends.