To Tung Tsao-Chiu
��And stopt the barbarian invasion.
In May you called me and I crossed the mountain of
Tai-hsing. My cart wheels were broken on the steep passes, winding
like sheep guts; but that did not matter.
I traveled on and came to Pe-liang and stayed for
months. What hospitality! What squandering of money! Red jade cups and rare dainty food on tables inlaid
with green jems! You made me so rapturously drunk that I had no
thought of returning.
Oft we went out to the western edge of the city,
To the Temple of Chin, where the stream was clear as emerald;
Where on a skiff afloat we played with water and made music on pipes and drums;
Where the tiny waves looked like dragon-scales — and how green were the reed in the shallows!
Pleasure-inspired, we took singing girls and gaily sailed the stream up and down.
How beautiful are their vermilioned faces, when half- drunken, they turn to the setting sun,
While the willow flakes are flying about them like snow,
And their green eyebrows are mirrored in the clear water one hundred feet deep!
And comelier still are the green eyebrows when the new
moon shines. The beautiful girls sing anew and dance in robes of
thin silk.
[91]
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