74 FIR-FLOWER TABLETS 



Her favors on both sides she'd gracefully shower, 

 Regardless to whom they might be — 

 One moment she'd kiss the sweet lips of a flower 

 The next — lave the root of a tree. 



She would leap from one rock to another in play, 

 Tumble down on her pebbly bed ; 

 Like a Naiad, let the dazzling sun-smitten spray 

 Fall, in prismatic gems, round her head. 



Sometimes she would lash herself into rage. 



And rush roaring and seething along, 



Till a bit of smooth ground would her anger assuage 



When she'd liquidly murmur a song." 



Even the staid Alexander Wylie frequently made his transla- 

 tion of the verses of stone tablets assume metrical form and 

 at least once he attempted rhythm, in his essay on "Secret 

 Societies," 



"When Hung with Hung in harmony combines, 



The watchword "Myriad" passes through the lines." 



In a later generation of sinologues Kingsmill, Parker 

 and Giles all were moved to adopt poetical form in their 

 transmutations of Chinese verse. Mr. Kingsmill was "con- 

 vinced of the true poetry contained in the Shih King ballads" 

 and "ventured to submit them in their own simple garb to 

 the aesthetic ear of the foreign critic." His rendering of 

 the first Ode is: — 



As the ospreys woo 

 On the river ait 

 So the graceful lass 

 Has her manly mate. 



As the coy marsh-flowers 

 Here and there do peep, 

 So the graceful lass 

 In his wakeful sleep. 



But he seeks in vain 

 Brooding night and day 

 Ah me ! Ah me ! 

 Tossing rest away. 



As the coy marsh-flower 

 Chosen here and there 

 So the graceful lass ; 

 He in tune with her. 



As the coy marsh-flower 

 Gathered here and there 

 So the graceful lass 

 Bells now ring for her. 



