Page:A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1919).djvu/181

 I undid the knot and saw the letter within; A single sheet with thirteen lines of writing. At the top it told the sorrows of an exile's heart; At the bottom it described the pains of separation. The sorrows and pains took up so much space There was no room left to talk about the weather! But you said that when you wrote You were staying for the night to the east of Shang-chou; Sitting alone, lighted by a solitary candle Lodging in the mountain hostel of Yang-Ch'ēng. Night was late when you finished writing, The mountain moon was slanting towards the west What is it lies aslant across the moon? A single tree of purple paulovnia flowers, Paulovnia flowers just on the point of falling Are a symbol to express "thinking of an absent friend." Lovingly — you wrote on the back side. To send in the letter, your "Poem of the Paulovnia Flower." The Poem of the Paulovnia Flower has eight rhymes; Yet these eight couplets have cast a spell on my heart. They have taken hold of this morning's thoughts And carried them to yours, the night you wrote your letter. The whole poem I read three times; Each verse ten times I recite. So precious to me are the fourscore words That each letter changes into a bar of gold! [ 175 ]