Page:The works of Li Po - Obata.djvu/226

 IA To the Chinese Poet

�� ��pointing to the plum tree. On the evening of his birth his mother dreamed of the planet of Chang-keng. So when the babe was born, he was named Po, and surnamed Tai-po. They said he was begotten by the spirit of the Great White Star.

He would read nought but the books of the sages and was ashamed to write after the lewd school of Chen and Wei. 5 Thus, his words resembled the speech of the heavenly genii. His writing consists of many satires and allegories.

From the ages of the Three Dynasties 6 and the times of the Feng and Sao, 7 there has been but one man, our master, who could run the race with Chu and Sung", and who could whip and spur Yang and Ma. 8 Yea, our master walks alone in the history of a thousand years. Is it any wonder that he swayed princes and earls who hurried to him, arraying their multitudinous arms and linking the cross-bars of their carriages while num- berous men of wisdom gathered to do homage as the birds flock to the Phoenix?

The Lord of the Yellow Gate 9 says that it is the

5 Chen and Wei are the names of states under the Chou dynasty, which contributed love songs to the Book of "Odes" com- piled by Confucius.

6 The Three Dynasties. The Hsia, the Shang and the Chou, comprising the years 2205-255 b. c.

7 Feng and Sao are styles of ancient poetry. The Feng is found in the Confucian "Odes" while the Sao originated with Chu and Sung (i.e. Chu Yuan and Sung Yu) of the 4th and 3rd centuries B. C.

8 Yang and Ma. Yang Hsiung (53 b. c— a.d. 18) and Ssu- ma Hsiang-ju (died 117 B.C.), two noted poets of the Han Dynasty.

9 The Lord of Yellow Gate. Refers to a certain Lu, a sue cessful statesman as well as a gentleman of parts.

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