The Desecration of the Han Tombs
At Pei-mang how they rise to Heaven,Those high mounds, four or five in the fields!What men lie buried under these tombs?All of them were Lords of the Han world.“Kung” and “Wēn” gaze across at each other:The Yüan mound is all grown over with weeds.When the dynasty was falling, tumult and disorder arose,Thieves and robbers roamed like wild beasts.Of earth they have carried away more than one handful,They have gone into vaults and opened the secret doors.Jewelled scabbards lie twisted and defaced:The stones that were set in them, thieves have carried away,The ancestral temples are hummocks in the ground:The walls that went round them are all levelled flat.Over everything the tangled thorns are growing:A herd-boy pushes through them up the path.Down in the thorns rabbits have made their burrows:The weeds and thistles will never be cleared away.Over the tombs the ploughshare will be drivenAnd peasants will have their fields and orchards there.They that were once lords of a thousand hostsAre now become the dust of the hills and ridges.I think of what Yün-mēn saidAnd am sorely grieved at the thought of “then” and “now.”
Words in this poem
- handful n.
- As much as the hand will grasp or contain. [AS. handfull.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- ploughshare n.
- The share of a plow, or that part which cuts the slice of earth or sod at the bottom of the furrow. Plowshare bone (Anat.), the pygostyle.
- sorely adv.
- In a sore manner; grievously; painfully; as, to be sorely afflicted.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Desecration of the Han Tombs 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, The Desecration of the Han Tombs, in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/the-desecration-of-the-han-tombs.html, id L18778.
Form and metre
The Desecration of the Han Tombs is 24 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The metre is iambic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 73%). 81% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.8 syllables. 6 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic hexameter.
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.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -----------A-----A------ heaven · fields · tombs · world · other · weeds · arose · beasts · handful · doors · defaced · awayA · ground · flat · growing · path · burrows · awayA · driven · there · hosts · ridges · said · now
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. Read against iambic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| At Pei-mang how they rise to Heaven, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Those high mounds, four or five in the fields! | 9 | ········· |
| What men lie buried under these tombs? | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| All of them were Lords of the Han world. | 9 | ········· |
| “Kung” and “Wēn” gaze across at each other: | 10 | ····˘/··/˘ |
| The Yüan mound is all grown over with weeds. | 10 | ·········· |
| When the dynasty was falling, tumult and disorder arose, | 16 | ··/˘˘·/˘/˘·˘/˘˘/ |
| Thieves and robbers roamed like wild beasts. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Of earth they have carried away more than one handful, | 13 | ····/˘˘/···/· |
| They have gone into vaults and opened the secret doors. | 13 | ·······/˘·/˘· |
| Jewelled scabbards lie twisted and defaced: | 10 | /˘/˘·/˘·˘/ |
| The stones that were set in them, thieves have carried away, | 13 | ·········/˘˘/ |
| The ancestral temples are hummocks in the ground: | 12 | ·˘/˘/˘······ |
| The walls that went round them are all levelled flat. | 11 | ········/˘· |
| Over everything the tangled thorns are growing: | 12 | ··/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| A herd-boy pushes through them up the path. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Down in the thorns rabbits have made their burrows: | 11 | ····/˘···/˘ |
| The weeds and thistles will never be cleared away. | 12 | ···/˘·/˘··˘/ |
| Over the tombs the ploughshare will be driven | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| And peasants will have their fields and orchards there. | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘· |
| They that were once lords of a thousand hosts | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Are now become the dust of the hills and ridges. | 12 | ··˘/······/˘ |
| I think of what Yün-mēn said | 7 | ······· |
| And am sorely grieved at the thought of “then” and “now.” | 12 | ··/˘········ |
Notes from the edition 3
Arthur Waley's notes to A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918; Project Gutenberg #42290).
- Line 5 Names of two tombs.
- Line 9 In the early days of the dynasty a man stole a handful of earth from the imperial tombs, and was executed by the police. The emperor was furious at the lightness of the punishment.
- Line 23 Yün-mēn said to Mēng Ch’ang-chün (died 279 B.C.), “Does it not grieve you to think that after a hundred years this terrace will be cast down and this pond cleared away?” Mēng Ch’ang-chün wept.
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.