THE MALAY PANTUN. 15 
The fish lie under the willow-bough (in the Chinese text 
same as 1n first stanza) 
That leans and shadows the rushes ; 
The king is here wn the city of Haou, 
At peace, and the wine-cup flushes, 
(Styled hsing). 
May-time. (I, Il, 12). 
Deep in the grass there lies a dead gazelle; 
The tall white grass enwraps her where she fell.— 
With sweet thought natural to spring 
A pretty girl goes wandering 
With.lover that would lead astray. 
(Styled hsing). 
The little dwarf oak hides a leafy dell; 
Far in the wilds there lies a dead gazelle; 
The tall, white grass enwraps her where she fell. 
And beauty, like a gem, does fling 
Bright radiance through the blinds of spring. 
(Styled hsing). 
“Ah, gently! do not disarray 
My kerchief! Gently, pray! 
Nor make the watch-dog bark 
Under my lattice dark!” 
(Styled fu). 
Even these very free translations will show the pantun-like 
style of some of the oldest Chinese poems. 
In the preface to the “ Lute of Jade,” a selection from later 
‘classical Chinese poets in the same “* Wisdom of the East” series, 
L. Cranmer-Byng says: “Concentration and suggestion are the. 
two essentials of Chinese poetry. There is neither Ihad nor 
Odyssey to be found in the libraries of the Chinese; indeed, a 
favourite feature of their verse is the “‘ stop short,’ a poem con- 
taining only four lines, concerning which another critic has ex- 
plained that only the words stop, whilst the sense goes on. But 
what a world of meaning is to be found between four lines! Often 
a door is opened, a curtain is drawn aside in the halls of romance, 
where the reader may roam at will.” As regards the rhyme, the 
same author says: “in the four-lne or stop- -short poem 
the first line rhymes with the second and fourth, curiously recalling 
the Rubayat-form of the Persian poets.” It is ‘difficult to find one 
of these stop-short poems from the translations given in the “ Lute 
‘of Jade,” as probably the English version does not follow the 
Chinese metre. There is one from Po Chi I (A.D. 772—846) : 
1. The stanza of the Chinese original have 4, 4, and 3 lines nespec- 
tively 
R. A. Soc., No. 85, 1922. 
