Page:The works of Li Po - Obata.djvu/162

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���93. LADY WANG-CHAO— I

Lady Chao brushes the saddle inlaid with pearl;

She mounts her palfrey and weeps,

Wetting her rose-red cheeks with tears.

To-day a high-born lady in the palace of Han,

To-morrow in a far land

She will be a barbarian slave.

��Lady Wang-chao, a lady in the seraglio of the em- peror Yuan-ti of the Han dynasty, was one of the early victims of the political marriages, which the ruling house of China was compelled to make from time to time with the chieftains of the barbarian tribes in order to avoid their savage incursions into the Middle Flower Kingdom.

This emperor had so many beauties, it is said, that for the sake of convenience he ordered their portraits to be painted. All the ladies bribed the artist, except Lady Wang-chao, who was consequently very unfavor- ably represented in the private gallery of the sovereign. So when a lady of the palace had to be presented to a Tartar chieftain, the emperor chose Wang-chao, believ- ing her to be the easiest one to spare. He discovered his mistake too late. She died in the barbarian land; singularly enough, over her little mound in the desert the grass, they say, was always green, [136]

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