Song
On the Eastern Way at the city of Lo-yangAt the edge of the road peach-trees and plum-trees grow;On the two sides,--flower matched by flower;Across the road,--leaf touching leaf.
A spring wind rises from the north-east;Flowers and leaves gently nod and sway.Up the road somebody’s daughter comesCarrying a basket, to gather silkworms’ food.
With her slender hand she breaks a branch from the tree;The flowers fall, tossed and scattered in the wind.
“Lovely lady, I never did you harm;Why should you hate me and do me injury?”
“At high autumn in the eighth and ninth moonsWhen the white dew changes to hoar-frost,At the year’s end the wind would have lashed your boughs,Your sweet fragrance could not have lasted long.Though in the autumn your leaves patter to the ground,When spring comes, your gay bloom returns.But in men’s lives when their bright youth is spentJoy and love never come back again.”
Words in this poem
- yang n.
- The cry of the wild goose; a honk. [Of imitative origin.]
- patter v. i.
- To strike with a quick succession of slight, sharp sounds; as, pattering rain or hail; pattering feet. [Freq. of pat to strike gently.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song 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, Song, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/song.html, id L18765.
Form and metre
Song is 20 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. 83% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 20% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| On the Eastern Way at the city of Lo-yang | 12 | ··/˘···/˘··· |
| At the edge of the road peach-trees and plum-trees grow; | 12 | ············ |
| On the two sides,--flower matched by flower; | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Across the road,--leaf touching leaf. | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| A spring wind rises from the north-east; | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Flowers and leaves gently nod and sway. | 9 | /˘··/˘··· |
| Up the road somebody’s daughter comes | 9 | ···/·˘/˘· |
| Carrying a basket, to gather silkworms’ food. | 12 | /˘˘·/˘·/˘/·· |
| With her slender hand she breaks a branch from the tree; | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| The flowers fall, tossed and scattered in the wind. | 11 | ·/˘···/˘··· |
| “Lovely lady, I never did you harm; | 10 | /˘/˘·/˘··· |
| Why should you hate me and do me injury?” | 11 | ········/˘˘ |
| “At high autumn in the eighth and ninth moons | 10 | ··/˘······ |
| When the white dew changes to hoar-frost, | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| At the year’s end the wind would have lashed your boughs, | 11 | ··········· |
| Your sweet fragrance could not have lasted long. | 10 | ··/˘···/˘· |
| Though in the autumn your leaves patter to the ground, | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
| When spring comes, your gay bloom returns. | 8 | ······˘/ |
| But in men’s lives when their bright youth is spent | 10 | ·········· |
| Joy and love never come back again.” | 9 | ···/˘··˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.