The Jade Mountain
A FARM-HOUSE ON THE WÊI RIVER
In the slant of the sun on the country-side,Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane;And a rugged old man in a thatch doorLeans on a staff and thinks of his son, the herd-boyThere are whirring pheasants, full wheat-ears,Silk-worms asleep, pared mulberry-leaves.And the farmers, returning with hoes on their shoulders,Hail one another familiarly.. . . No wonder I long for the simple lifeAnd am sighing the old song, Oh, to go Back Again!
(108)
THE BEAUTIFUL HSI SHIH
Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire,How could Hsi Shih remain humbly at home?—Washing clothes at dawn by a southern lake—And that evening a great lady in a palace of the north:Lowly one day, no different from the others,The next day exalted, everyone praising her.No more would her own hands powder her faceOr arrange on her shoulders a silken robe.And the more the King loved her, the lovelier she looked,Blinding him away from wisdom.
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