The Jade Mountain/On Passing Chia Yi's House in Ch'ang-sha

by Liu Zhangqing

ON PASSING CHIA YI'S HOUSE IN CH'ANG-SHA

Here, where you spent your three years' exile,To be mourned in Ch'u ten thousand years,Can I trace your footprint in the autumn grass—Or only slanting sunlight through the bleak woods?If even good Emperor Wên was cold-hearted,Could you hope that the dull river Hsiang would understand you,These desolate waters, these taciturn mountains,When you came, like me, so far away?

(43)