FIR-FLOWER TABLETS 77 



color of the heavens as our conventional description "blue." 

 The character "ch'ing" according to the author of T'ao Lu, 

 translated by Bushell, means a color "approaching a light 

 blue, or. a pale emerald or a deep green or bluish green." 

 The authors' translation as green, calls attention to the 

 Chinese conception of the color of the heavens as broader 

 than our own, though as a matter of fact neither blue nor 

 green suffice to describe fully their ever-changing effects. 

 Mrs. Ayscough was no happier in the choice of Miss Lowell 

 as her poet than Miss Lowell in selecting Mrs. Ayscough as 

 her interpreter of Chinese poetical ideas. Both appreciated 

 the beauty of the originals and vied with each other in repro- 

 ducing it in the English language. 



With so many good verses to select from it seems 

 wellnigh invidious to pick out any as better than others, 

 but it may not be amiss to express one's satisfaction that 

 the authors chose "The Songs of the Marches" as the first 

 in their collection. It is full of the sound of war but this 

 is interspersed with the gentler thoughts of home, such as 

 is suggested by the playing of the song "The Snapped 

 Willows." The intense suffering of the soldiers in their 

 campaign on a distant frontier is made possible by their 

 devotion to their leader Ho P'iao-yao. The end of the 

 scene is an era of peace. The hero Ho would have been 

 still more impressive if the reference to his portrait had been 

 more correctly translated as 



And the portrait of Ho P'iao-yao 

 Unrivalled hangs in the Lin Pavilion. 



The thought of the original is that Ho's achievements were 

 so great as to entitle his portrait to hang in the Pavilion so 

 conspicuously that those of other heroes would not be seen 

 "No color mists the trees," "Swords brush the hoar-frost 

 flowers of the Barbarians' country" and "Now indeed have 

 they won the right to the soft, high bed of peace are 

 especially fine lines in this martial lay. An excellent 

 metrical"' version of this song by Charles Budd appeared m 

 his "Chinese Poem" (1912), but in it some of the best 

 phrases are omitted. a , 



The opening ejaculations of "The Perils of the Shu 

 Road" (p. 6) as uttered by the men of Shu (Szechuan) when 

 thinking of the road to their home seem very tame in the 

 translation "Alas! alas!" for these three characters Ee^ 

 shee shee" are as striking to the Chinese ear as any of the 

 m'tet ve suggestiveness of "The Bells" of Poe This poem 

 rexcellentlf described by Waley as "Nearer akin to music 



