Po-Hsing-chien of T`ai-yuuan._

WANG CHIEN

[_c. A.D. 830_]

[66] HEARING THAT HIS FRIEND WAS COMING BACK FROM THE WAR

In old days those who went to fight
In three years had one year's leave.
But in _this_ war the soldiers are never changed;
They must go on fighting till they die on the battle-field.
I thought of you, so weak and indolent,
Hopelessly trying to learn to march and drill.
That a young man should ever come home again
Seemed about as likely as that the sky should fall.
Since I got the news that you were coming back,
Twice I have mounted to the high hall of your home.
I found your brother mending your horse's stall;
I found your mother sewing your new clothes.
I am half afraid; perhaps it is not true;
Yet I never weary of watching for you on the road.
Each day I go out at the City Gate
With a flask of wine, lest you should come thirsty.
Oh that I could shrink the surface of the World,
So that suddenly I might find you standing at my side.

[67] THE SOUTH

In the southern land many birds sing;
Of towns and cities half are unwalled.
The country markets are thronged by wild tribes;
The mountain-villages bear river-names.
Poisonous mists rise from the damp sands;
Strange fires gleam through the night-rain.
And none passes but the lonely fisher of pearls.
Year by year on his way to the South Sea.

OU-YANG HSIU

[_b. 1007; d. 1072_]

[68] AUTUMN

Master Ou-yang was reading his books[1] at night when he heard a strange
sound coming from the north-west. He paused and listened intently,
saying to himself: "How strange, how strange!" First there was a
pattering and rustling; but suddenly this broke into a great churning
and crashing, like the noise of waves that wake the traveller at night,
when wind and rain suddenly come; and where they lash the ship, there is
a jangling and clanging as of metal against metal.

[1] The poem was written in 1052, when Ou-yang was finishing his "New
History of the T`ang Dynasty."

Or again, like the sound of soldiers going to battle, who march swiftly
with their gags[2] between their teeth, when the captain's voice cannot
be heard, but only the tramp of horses and men moving.

[2] Pieces of wood put in their mouths to prevent their talking.

I called to my boy, bidding him go out and see what noise this could be.
The boy s