Li Po the Chinese Poet
��Which having ceased — lo! We burst into a valley—into the light of a thousand flowers.
There on the level ground with their horses of golden
reins and silver saddles Stood the governor of Han-tung and his men, who had
come to meet us. The Taoist initiates of Tzu-yang welcomed us, too, blow- ing on their jeweled bamboo pipes. They took us on the Tower of Mist- Feasting, — what a
music there stirred! Such celestial notes! It seemed all the sacred birds
of heaven sang together. With those pipes playing, our long sleeves began to
flap lightly. At last the governor of Han-chung, drunken, rose and
danced. It was he, who covered me with his brocade robe; And I, drunk too, chose his lap for pillow and went
to sleep. During the feast our spirits soared high over the ninth
heaven, But ere the morning we were scattered like stars and
rain, Scattered hither and thither, the Pass of Chu separating
us wide, As I sought my old nest in the mountains, And you returned to your home across the Bridge of
Wei,
Your honorable father brave as leopard and tiger Became the governor of Ping-chow then.
[90]
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