The meaning in English is something like this:—
This grief is common to everyone,
One hundred years how many can attain?
But 'tis heart breaking, o waters of the Yangtze,
Together we came,—but together we return not.
The feeling here is as deep, if not deeper; but the words are fewer, and the language is simpler, even than Tennyson's.
Break, break, break
On thy cold grey stones, O sea!
* * * *
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
But now what about the love of a wife in China for her husband? I do not think any evidence is needed to prove this. It is true that in China the bride and bride-groom as a rule never see each other until the marraige day, and yet that there is love between even bride and bride-groom, can be seen in these four lines of poetry from the T'ang dynasty:—
洞 房 昨 夜 停 紅 燭
待 曉 堂 前 拜 舅 姑
妝 罷 低 聲 問 夫 婿
畫 眉 深 淺 入 時 無
The meaning in English of the above is something like this,
In the bridal chamber last night stood red candles;
Waiting for the morning to salute the father and mother in the hall,
