1 78 CHINESE LITERATURE
The secret of perpetual youth
is already known to me : Accept with philosophic calm
whatever fate may be"
Hsu AN-CHN, of the ninth century, is entitled to a place among the Tang poets, if only for the following piece :
" When the Bear athwart was lying. And the night was just on dying, And the moon was all but gone, How my thoughts did ramble on /
" Then a sound of music breaks From a lute that some one wakes, And I know that it is she, (
The sweet maid next door to me.
" And as the strains steal o'er me Her moth-eyebrows rise before me, And I feel a gentle thrill That her fingers must be chill.
" But doors and locks between us So effectually screen us That I hasten from the street And in dreamland pray to meet."
The following lines by Tu CH'IN-NIANG, a poetess of gems of the T'ang dynasty :
" / would not have thee grudge those robes
which gleam in rich array, But I would have thee grudge the hours
of youth which glide away. Go, pluck the blooming flower betimes,
lest when thou com!st again Alas ! upon the withered stem
no blooming Jlowers remain ! *
�� �
