Classic Poem

At Hung-tung Mountain, the war-drums sounded:
the eastern neighbors were killed,
the western neighbors taken prisoner!
Ts'ui managed to escape, deep into the mountains,
leading his children by the hand, carrying his mother piggy-back!
Any moment the troops would be upon them,
they couldn't move too slow.
The moon was dark, the ground slippery with frost,
the mountain steep and treacherous.
The eldest child tugged at Ts'ui's robe,
the youngest was crying —
but Ts'ui thought only of saving his mother:
he forced himself to ignore the children.
He deserted them there, among the rocky crags,
cutting off his love for them, knowing they must die!
But next day, some neighbors found them and brought them back,
and the delighted family was together once again.
I know Ts'ui did what he did out of love:
if the gods had not protected these people,
how could they have survived?
Now the children bow to their parents,
and the grandchildren to their grandparents:
the family lives together again in a paradise of their own.