Dreaming of Yüan Chēn
At night you came and took my hand and we wandered together in mydream;When I woke in the morning there was no one to stop the tears thatfell on my handkerchief.On the banks of the Ch’ang my aged body three times has passedthrough sickness;At Hsien-yang to the grasses on your grave eight times hasautumn come.You lie buried beneath the springs and your bones are mingled withthe clay.I--lodging in the world of men; my hair white as snow.A-wei and Han-lang both followed in their turn;Among the shadows of the Terrace of Night did you know them or not?
Words in this poem
- hsien n.
- An administrative subdivision of a fu, or department, or of an independent chow; also, the seat of government of such a district.
- yang n.
- The cry of the wild goose; a honk. [Of imitative origin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dreaming of Yüan Chēn is in the public domain. This text is taken from A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, the Arthur Waley translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Various, Dreaming of Yüan Chēn, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/dreaming-of-y-an-ch-n.html, id L18869.
Form and metre
Dreaming of Yüan Chēn is 13 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| At night you came and took my hand and we wandered together in my | 17 | ··········/˘˘/˘·· |
| dream; | 1 | · |
| When I woke in the morning there was no one to stop the tears that | 16 | ·····/˘········· |
| fell on my handkerchief. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| On the banks of the Ch’ang my aged body three times has passed | 14 | ········/˘···· |
| through sickness; | 3 | ·/˘ |
| At Hsien-yang to the grasses on your grave eight times has | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| autumn come. | 3 | /˘· |
| You lie buried beneath the springs and your bones are mingled with | 15 | ··/˘········/˘· |
| the clay. | 2 | ·· |
| I--lodging in the world of men; my hair white as snow. | 13 | ·/˘·········· |
| A-wei and Han-lang both followed in their turn; | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Among the shadows of the Terrace of Night did you know them or not? | 17 | ···/···/˘········ |
Notes from the edition 3
Arthur Waley's notes to A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918; Project Gutenberg #42290).
- Line 5 Since you died.
- Line 7 Near Ch’ang-an, modern Si-ngan-fu.
- Line 12 Affectionate names of Li Chien and Ts’ui Hsüan-liang.
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