Page:The works of Li Po - Obata.djvu/228

 Li Po the Chinese Poet

��But when the true and the base are put side by side, the gifted one is injured and slanders are made, while the candid word of virtue fails. The emperor neglected him. Our master drank wine and by his indulgence ob- scured himself. And when he made poems and songs, he spoke often of the East Mountain. With Ho Chi- chang, Tsui Tsung-chi and the rest, he did also the revel of the Eight Immortals. Chi-chang called him "a god in exile." So his comrades at the court made compo- sitions, entitled "The Song of the God in Exile," which were several hundred in number, and most of which men- tioned our master's disappointments in life. The Son of Heaven, knowing that he could not be retained, gave gold and let him depart.

Thereafter he went with Yen-yun, visiting-inspector of Chen-liu, 14 to the High Heavenly Priest of Pe-hai, whom he petitioned and was bestowed the Taoist tablet at the Purple Peak Temple in Chi-chou. 15 He only de- sired to return east to Peng-lai 16 and ride with the winged man to the Scarlet Hill of immortality.

I, Yang-ping, was then trying my harp-playing and singing 17 at Tang-tu, although it was not what my heart coveted. Our master, forsaking me not, took a skiff

14 Chen-liu. A city near Kaifeng-fu, Honan.

15 Chi-chou. The present city, Chinan-fu, Shantung.

16 Peng-lai is a fabled island in the eastern sea ; and the Scar- let Hill a dwelling place of exalted spirits. The Winged Men are those who have attained the highest rank in the Taoist Orders.

17 To do "harp-playing and singing" means simply to govern, the phrase having a classic allusion to the story of the legendary emperor Shun of whom it is written, "Shun sang the Song of the South Wind, and there was peace in the land." Here the writer simply means that he, Yang-ping, was governor of Tang-tu.

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