Classic Poem

Lovelier than all the rest,
But living alone in an empty valley,
She says that she came from an excellent clan
Which is humbled now among grasses and tree-trunks ...
When trouble arose in the Küan district,
Her brothers and close kin were killed.
What use were their high offices,
Not even saving their own lives!
The world has but scorn for adversity;
And hope goes out, like the light of a candle.
Her husband, with a vagrant heart,
Finds a new love like a new piece of jade;
And when morning-glories furl at night
And mandarin-ducks lie side by side,
All he can see is the smile of the new love
While the old love weeps unheard.
Pure was the spring in its mountain-source,
But away from the mountain its waters are roiled ...
Waiting for her maid to come from selling pearls
For straw to cover the roof again,
She breaks off flowers, not now for her hair,
And absently fills up her hand with pine needles
And, forgetting her worn silk sleeve, and the cold,
Leans in the sunset by a tall bamboo.