442 



Mr. Davis on the Poetry of the Chinese. 



fettered species — a kind of impassioned prose, into which the writer of a 

 narrative now and then breaks forth, when inspired by the occasion. The fol- 

 lowing example is taken from the romance of the ' Fortunate Union,' and 

 describes the heroine when she is first seen by her future lover. The paral- 

 lelisms are marked and divided by colons in the translation. 



Si- U 



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fl 



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m ft 



4g i^I 







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m n 



■4 



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" With the delicacy of a flower, her complexion displayed a clear brilliancy which 

 put to shame the floating light of day: with the buoyant lightness of the swallow, her 

 movements were ordered with inimitable grace and propriety. The arches of her brows 

 were like the outlines of the vernal hills in the distance, but in their changeful expres- 

 sion they shamed the varying tints of even the vernal hills: the brightness of her eyes 

 equalled that of the clear wave in autumn, but the living sentiment which flowed from 

 them made you wonder how the aiitumnal wave had lost its deity.* Her waist, like a 

 thread in fineness, seemed ready to break, yet was it straight and erect, and feared not 

 the fanning breeze ; the shadowy graces of her person it was as difficult to delineate, as 



• Called Luhshin. 



