The Two Red Towers (A Satire Against Clericalism)
The Two Red TowersNorth and south rise facing each other.I beg to ask, to whom do they belong?To the two Princes of the period Chēng Yüan.The two Princes blew on their flutes and drew down fairies from thesky,Who carried them off through the Five Clouds, soaring away to Heaven.Their halls and houses, that they could not take with them,Were turned into Temples planted in the Dust of the World.In the tiring-rooms and dancers’ towers all is silent and still;Only the willows like dancers’ arms, and the pond like a mirror.When the flowers are falling at yellow twilight, when things are sadand hushed,One does not hear songs and flutes, but only chimes and bells.The Imperial Patent on the Temple doors is written in letters ofgold;For nuns’ quarters and monks’ cells ample space is allowed.For green moss and bright moonlight--plenty of room provided;In a hovel opposite is a sick man who has hardly room to lie down.I remember once when at P’ing-yang they were building a great man’shouseHow it swallowed up the housing space of thousands of ordinary men.The Immortals are leaving us, two by two, and their houses areturned into Temples;I begin to fear that the whole world will become a vast convent.
Words in this poem
- hovel n.
- An open shed for sheltering cattle, or protecting produce, etc., from the weather. Brande & C. [OE. hovel, hovil, prob. a dim. fr. AS. hof house; akin to D. & G. hof court, yard, Icel. hof temple; cf. Prov. E. hove to take shelter, heuf shelter, home.]
- 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
The Two Red Towers (A Satire Against Clericalism) 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 Two Red Towers (A Satire Against Clericalism), in A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #42290, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/waley-chinese/the-two-red-towers-a-satire-against-clericalism.html, id L18835.
Form and metre
The Two Red Towers (A Satire Against Clericalism) is 25 lines in a single stanza. 79% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 11.8 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 28% 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.
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---------BB------- towers · other · belong · yüanA · the · sky · heavenA · them · world · still · mirror · sad · hushed · bells · of · gold · allowedB · providedB · down · man's · house · men · are · temples · convent
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The Two Red Towers | 5 | ···/˘ |
| North and south rise facing each other. | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| I beg to ask, to whom do they belong? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| To the two Princes of the period Chēng Yüan. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘˘·· |
| The two Princes blew on their flutes and drew down fairies from the | 15 | ··/˘·······/˘·· |
| sky, | 1 | · |
| Who carried them off through the Five Clouds, soaring away to Heaven. | 16 | ·/˘······/˘˘/·/˘ |
| Their halls and houses, that they could not take with them, | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| Were turned into Temples planted in the Dust of the World. | 14 | ····/˘/˘······ |
| In the tiring-rooms and dancers’ towers all is silent and still; | 16 | ··/˘··/˘/˘··/˘·· |
| Only the willows like dancers’ arms, and the pond like a mirror. | 16 | /˘·/··/˘······/˘ |
| When the flowers are falling at yellow twilight, when things are sad | 16 | ··/˘·/˘·/˘/····· |
| and hushed, | 2 | ·· |
| One does not hear songs and flutes, but only chimes and bells. | 13 | ········/˘··· |
| The Imperial Patent on the Temple doors is written in letters of | 19 | ·˘/˘˘/˘··/˘··/˘·/˘· |
| gold; | 1 | · |
| For nuns’ quarters and monks’ cells ample space is allowed. | 13 | ··/˘···/˘··˘/ |
| For green moss and bright moonlight--plenty of room provided; | 14 | ·····/·/˘··˘/˘ |
| In a hovel opposite is a sick man who has hardly room to lie down. | 19 | ··/˘/˘˘······/˘···· |
| I remember once when at P’ing-yang they were building a great man’s | 16 | ·˘/˘·······/˘··· |
| house | 1 | · |
| How it swallowed up the housing space of thousands of ordinary men. | 18 | ··/˘··/˘··/˘·/˘·˘· |
| The Immortals are leaving us, two by two, and their houses are | 16 | ·˘/˘·/˘······/˘· |
| turned into Temples; | 5 | ···/˘ |
| I begin to fear that the whole world will become a vast convent. | 16 | ·˘/·······˘/··/˘ |
Notes from the edition 2
Arthur Waley's notes to A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918; Project Gutenberg #42290).
- Line 4 785-805.
- Line 23 Hsien Tsung’s brothers?
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