132 CHINESE LITERATURE
The following is one of his occasional poems :
" A scholar lives on yonder hill,
His clothes are rarely whole to view,
Nine times a month he eats his fill. Once in ten years his hat is new,
A wretched lot ! and yet the while
He ever wears a sunny smile.
Longing to know what like was he, At dawn my steps a path unclosed
Where dark firs left the passage free And on the eaves the white clouds dozed.
But he, as spying my intent,
Seized his guitar and swept the strings;
Up flew a crane towards heaven bent, And now a startled pheasant springs. . . .
Oh, let me rest with thee until
The winter winds again blow chill J"
PAO CHAO was an official and a poet who perished, A.D. 466, in a rebellion. Some of his poetry has been preserved :
" What do these halls of jasper mean,
and shining floor, Where tapestries of satin screen
window and door f A lady on a lonely seat,
embroidering Fair flowers which seem to smell as sweet
as buds in spring. Swallows flit past, a zephyr shakes
the plum-blooms down; She draws the blind, a goblet takes
her thoughts to drown. And now she sits in tears, or hums,
nursing her grief That in her life joy rarely comes
to bring relief. . .
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