He Waters His Horse Near a Breach in the Long Wall - Poetry - Poem

Literary Review, Summer, 2003 by Tony Barnstone

This is a poem from the Bureau of Music. The Bureau of Music was set up around 120 BC by Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty and abolished in 6 BC by Emperor Ali. At the time of its dissolution, it employed eight hundred and twenty-nine people. Its function was to collect songs by the common people, in part as a way of judging their reactions to the imperial government. The Music Bureau employees also performed rites and created sacrificial music. The collected songs came to be called music bureau songs, and this term designated a type of poem written in imitation of music bureau themes throughout the history of Chinese poetry.

   Green so green is the river grass,
   and I can't stop thinking of that far road,
   can't bear thinking of that far road.
   Last night I saw him in my dream,
   dreamed him standing by my side.
   Suddenly I was in another land,
   another land and a different country,
   I tossed and turned and woke apart.
   The gaunt mulberry knows the sky's wind
   and waters of the sea know cold heaven.
   When travelers return in joy
   not one has a word for me.
   From a far land a traveler came
   and left me two carp.
   I asked my children to cook the fish
   and inside they found a silk letter.
   I knelt long and read the letter.
   What did that letter say?
   It started, Try to eat.
   and ended, I miss you always.

Translated from the Chinese by Tony Barnstone

Author's Note: "Long Wall" is the Chinese term for what we know as "The Great Wall of China." The letter in the carp refers either to wooden fish-shaped letter-cases, or to actual fish, since in Chinese tradition people sometimes sent secret things packed inside of fish (maps, daggers, letters, and so on).

Tony Barnstone's books include Out of the Howling Storm: The New Chinese Poetry, Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Selected Poems of the Chinese Masters, The Art of Writing: Teachings of the Chinese Masters, and a number of textbooks, most recently, The Literature of Asia and The Literature of the Middle East. His poetry, translations, essays on poetics, and fiction have appeared in dozens of American literary journals, from APR to Agni. He has won an Artists Fellowship from the California Arts Council as well as many national poetry awards. His forthcoming books are The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry, The Pleasures of Poetry: An Introduction, and Modern Poetry: An Anthology with Contexts.