FIR-FLOWER TABLETS 81 



This leads to the observation that the greatest fault 

 of "Fir-Flower Tablets" is its monotony. The rolicking 

 Li T'ai-po and the melancholic Tu Fu, the gentle Wang Wei 

 and the rugged T'ao Yuan-ming all melt into the same poetic 

 flavour. There is much more vivacity in Miss Lowell's 

 "Legends" than in her "Fir-Flower Tablets." Perhaps in 

 future a closer collaboration even than happened in the 

 production of this volume between the poet and scholar may 

 have the happy result of Mrs. Ayscough's being able to help 

 Miss Lowell catch the differing spirit of the Chinese poets. 

 Miss Lowell is a poet of many moods and can readily suit 

 her language to her moods. We shall look for a larger 

 differentiation in the style of various original poets in the 

 next volume of translations which is sure to come, and a 

 nearer adaptation to their spirit. Or perhaps poets might 

 be taken one by one in separate volumes and at different 

 times. The explanation of the tone adopted throughout 

 may be found in the fact explained in the Preface that the 

 approach of Miss Lowell to Chinese poetry was first made 

 through Mrs. Ayscough's translations of "Written Pictures." 

 Now it is always true that these "Written Pictures" are 

 much more careful in their provision of high moral cogitations 

 than of true poetical inspiration. Their influence has lent 

 a certain soberness to Miss Lowell's lines which are not the 

 universal rule of the originals. 



A help might be found if poems-shih, such as Feng 

 Huang T'ai, lyrics-fu, such as "Poignant grief during a 

 Sunny Spring," songs-Ko such as "The Beautiful Woman 

 Grieving before her Mirror" and ballads — yo fu, such as 

 "The Perils of- the Shu Eoad," would be arranged in classes 

 as is usual in collections of English poetry. This is a, simple 

 device but it strikes at the very roots of the variations of the 

 Chinese originals and would have beneficial effects both 

 upon the authors of translations and upon their readers. 

 Chinese poetry has a wonderful range of subjects. It has 

 also many metres. The decision of the authors to pay no 

 attention to the metre of the originals as controlling the 

 metre of their translation, though wise, could have been 

 supplemented by a "Metrical Index" such as is common 

 in editions of Horace. This would have called for a clear 

 description of Chinese metres in the Introduction, but this 

 description could have been provided easily by Mrs. 

 Avscough. Such an Index was before Miss Lowell in the 

 form of the Chinese text supplied to her by Mrs. Ayscougn. 

 Any benefit which Miss Lowell derived from this knowledge 



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