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The Jade Mountain
Held west of the gate,Challenged for taxes,How could they pay?... We have learned that to have a son is bad luck—It is very much better to have a daughterWho can marry and live in the house of a neighbour,While under the sod we bury our boys.. . . Go to the Blue Sea, look along the shoreAt all the old white bones forsaken—New ghosts are wailing there now with the old,Loudest in the dark .sky of a stormy day.


A SONG OF FAIR WOMEN

(Written to Music)

On the third day of the Third-month in the freshening weatherMany beauties take the air by the Ch'ang-an water-front,Receptive, aloof, sweet-mannered, sincere,With soft fine skin and well-balanced bone.Their embroidered silk robes in the spring sun are gleamingWith a mass of golden peacocks and silver unicorns.And hanging far down from their templesAre blue leaves of delicate kingfisher feathers.And following behind themIs a pearl-laden train, rhythmic with bearers.Some of them are kindred to the Royal House—The titled Princesses Kuo and Ch'in.

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