by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762)
Translation by Ezra Pound (1885 - 1972)
While my hair was still cut straight...
Language: English  after the Chinese (中文)
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead I played at the front gate, pulling flowers. You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse, You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums. And we went on living in the village of Chokan: Two small people, without dislike or suspicion. At fourteen I married My Lord you. I never laughed, being bashful. Lowering my head, I looked at the wall. Called to, a thousand times, I never looked back. At fifteen I stopped scowling, I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever and forever. Why should I climb the lookout? At sixteen you departed, You went into far Ku-to-en, by the river of swirling eddies, And you have been gone five months. The monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead. You dragged your feet when you went out, By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses, Too deep to clear them away! The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind. The paired butterflies are already yellow with August Over the grass in the West garden; They hurt me. I grow older. If you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang, Please let me know beforehand, And I will come out to meet you As far as Cho-fu-sa.
About the headline (FAQ)
Note: The author of the original Chinese is transliterated as "Rihaku" in the attribution to this poem.Authorship:
- by Ezra Pound (1885 - 1972), "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter", appears in Cathay, first published 1915 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762) [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Lee Hoiby (1926 - 2011), "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter", 1955, rev. 1979. [text not verified]
- by Lucas van Regteren-Altena , "The river-merchant's wife: a letter", 1953. [text not verified]
- by Lawrence Willingham (b. 1942), "The River-Merchant's Wife", op. 20 (1980). [soprano and instrumental ensemble] [text not verified]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-07-21
Line count: 29
Word count: 217