FIR-FLOWER TABLETS 71 



remember though she mentions Bushell's "Chinese Pottery 

 and Porcelain" and Julien's "Historie et Fabrication de la 

 Porcelaine Chinoise." She quotes a Chinese proverb as her 

 excuse for not mentioning the names of many other books 

 on China which she has read. The difference between "A 

 Legend of Porcelain" and the poems in this volume is that 

 the Legend is a fancy sketch of China while these are China 

 itself. It is the difference between a travelogue and a trip 

 to China, The "Legend of Porcelain" evidences an exact- 

 ness in reading and a generosity in interpretation which can 

 only be characterized as remarkable but the viewpoint is 

 detached. In the "Fir-Flower Tablets" it is intimate. It 

 may be noted in passing that the "Legend" is responsible in 

 all probability also for the happy name of this volume, 

 "Fir-Flower Tablets," for it is found on page 42 of the 

 earlier work. 



It is nothing new for Miss Lowell to get her inspiration 

 in out-of-the-way places. She has drawn confessions from 

 the yuccas of Peru and heard the funeral song for the Indian 

 Chief Blackbird with the same enthusiasm as she has shown 

 in her studies of six French contemporary poets. Every tale 

 that she has read has become grist to her mill. One can 

 imagine the ready eagerness with which she welcomed the 

 beauty of the thoughts contained in the translations of 

 "Written Pictures" brought to her by her life-long friend 

 Mrs. Ayscough and her immediate recognition of the pos- 

 sibility of their being turned to good poetical account. 



There has been no attempt to follow the metre or the 

 rhythm of the originals. Miss Lowell explains that she 

 considers it more important to reproduce the perfume of a 

 poem than its natural form. How could she or anyone else 

 have followed the metre and rhythm of Feng Huang T'ai 

 (p. 21):- 



Feng huang t'ai shang feng huang yu 

 Feng chu t'ai k'ung chiang tzu liu 



There are seven words only in each line and the rhythmic 

 vowel sound is iu. Her poetical inspiration interpreted the 

 meaning of these two lines: — 



" The silver-crested love-pheasants strutted upon the Phea- 

 sant Terrace. 



Now the pheasants are gone, the terrace is empty and the 

 river flows on in its own original way." 



The result of the interpretation is English poetry in a sound 

 conception of it as "the art which has for its object the 



