Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/144

 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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