A Poem Of Changgan

by Li Bai

  


Li Bai (also known as Li Po), wrote poems celebrating the joys of friendship, nature, solitude, and good wine! A Poem of Changgan is written in the voice of an eighth-century Chinese woman who is speaking to her husband. This poem is often studied in grades 11-12, particulary for how juxtaposed image can convey emotion.
A Poem Of Changgan

  My hair had hardly covered my forehead.

  I was picking flowers, playing by my door,

  When you, my lover, on a bamboo horse,

  Came trotting in circles and throwing green plums.

  We lived near together on a lane in Ch'ang-kan,

  Both of us young and happy-hearted.

  ...At fourteen I became your wife,

  So bashful that I dared not smile,

  And I lowered my head toward a dark corner

  And would not turn to your thousand calls;

  But at fifteen I straightened my brows and laughed,

  Learning that no dust could ever seal our love,

  That even unto death I would await you by my post

  And would never lose heart in the tower of silent watching.

  ...Then when I was sixteen, you left on a long journey

  Through the Gorges of Ch'u-t'ang, of rock and whirling water.

  And then came the Fifth-month, more than I could bear,

  And I tried to hear the monkeys in your lofty far-off sky.

  Your footprints by our door, where I had watched you go,

  Were hidden, every one of them, under green moss,

  Hidden under moss too deep to sweep away.

  And the first autumn wind added fallen leaves.

  And now, in the Eighth-month, yellowing butterflies

  Hover, two by two, in our west-garden grasses

  And, because of all this, my heart is breaking

  And I fear for my bright cheeks, lest they fade.

  ...Oh, at last, when you return through the three Pa districts,

  Send me a message home ahead!

  And I will come and meet you and will never mind the distance,

  All the way to Chang-feng Sha.

  Li Po

  


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