40

In Illness, Dismissing My Singing Girl

Ssu-k’ung Shu (fl. 788)

Ten thousand things wound my heart when you’re before my eyes,

I, lean and withered, to sleep facing such a flower!

I’ve used up all my yellow gold teaching you songs and dances—

go stay with someone else now, make a young man happy.

Translated by Burton Watson

 

Ssu-k’ung Shu attained the rank of Presented Scholar after success in the highest level of the civil service examinations. During and after the An Lu-shan rebellion (see selection 149), he was forced to move around quite a lot, including a period of banishment to Ch’ang-lin in Hupei. He was one of the “Ten Talents of the Ta-li Era” (766–779).