On Soh Cherwei’s post: a response. Borrowing Li Bai 李白 (701-762 AD), with apologies.
Chinese version, 李白
長干行
妾髮初覆額，折花門前劇;
郎騎竹鳥來，遶床弄青梅。
同居長干舉，兩小無嫌猜。
十四為君婦，羞顏未嘗開。
低頭向暗壁，千喚不一回。
十五始展眉，願同塵與灰。
常存抱柱信，豈上望夫臺。
十六君遠行，瞿塘灩澦堆。
五月不可觸，猿聲天上哀。
門前遲行跡，一一生綠苔。
苔深不能掃，落葉秋風早。
八月蝴蝶來，雙飛西園草。
感此傷妾心，坐愁紅顏老。
早晚下三巴，預將書報家。
相迎不道遠，直至長風沙。
An equally exquisite English version of the above, Chang’an xing 長干行 (Chang’an, present day Xi’an), was published in Cathay (1915). That Ezra Pound translation retitled but was faithful, in every way, to Li Bai’s original:
The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
I played about 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 look out?
At sixteen you departed,
You went into far Ku-to-yen, 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.
NB on Cherwei’s post: Some of the English translations (examples here and repeated here) of Cherwei’s post are riddled with errors, concepts, ideas and meanings inserted where they don’t exist in the original and others removed or badly mangled. Also, watch the pack of street dogs that invariably turn up over the bones of such matters. Think of them as the Ridhuan Tees, also present among Malaysia Today and the Siew Engs of the Malaysiakini quasi illiterate horde. Consider, for instance, that the English word “pawn” does not exist in the Chinese character original, even its meaning, thus illiciting inane comments from the like of “Loyal Malaysian” who reveals to be a Stupid Malaysian.
