Kao Shih
A SONG OF THE YEN COUNTRY
(Written to Music)
(In the sixth year of K'ai-yüan, a friend returned from the border and showed me the Yen Song. Moved by what he told me of the expedition, I have written this poem to the same rhymes.)
The northeastern border of China was dark with smoke and dust.To repel the savage invaders, our generals, leaving their families,Strode forth together, looking as heroes should look;And having received from the Emperor his most gracious favour,They marched to the beat of gong and drum through the Elm Pass.They circled the Stone Tablet with a line of waving flags,Till their captains over the Sea of Sand were twanging feathered orders.The Tartar chieftain's hunting-fires glimmered along Wolf Mountain,And heights and rivers were cold and bleak there at the outer border;But soon the barbarians' horses were plunging through wind and rain.Half of our men at the front were killed, but the other half are living,And still at the camp beautiful girls dance for them and sing.. . . As autumn ends in the grey sand, with the grasses all withered,The few surviving watchers by the lonely wall at sunset,
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