Lament for Ten Thousand Men's Graves
Chang Pin (9th-10th centuries)
The war is ended on the Huai border, and the trading roads are open again;
Stray crows come and go cawing in the wintry sky.
Alas for the white bones heaped together in desolate graves;
All had sought military honors for their leader.
The Moon at the Fortified Pass
Li Po (705-762)
The bright moon lifts from the Mountain of Heaven
In an infinite haze of cloud and sea,
And the wind, that has come a thousand miles,
Beats at the Jade Pass battlements.....
China marches its men down Po-teng Road
While Tartar troops peer across blue waters of the bay...
And since not one battle famous in history
Sent all its fighters back again,
The soldiers turn round, looking toward the border,
And think of home, with wistful eyes,
And of those tonight in the upper chambers
Who toss and sigh and cannot rest.
A Trooper's Burden
Liu Ch'ang-ch'ing (8th century)
For years, to guard the Jade Pass and the River of Gold,
With our hands on our horse-whips and our sword-hilts,
We have watched the green graves change to snow
And the Yellow Stream ring the Black Mountain forever.
Lung-Hsi Song
Ch'en T'ao (9th-10th centuries)
They vowed to sweep away the barbarians without regard of self;
Five thousand in their furs and brocades perished in the Tartar dust.
Alas! Their bones, lay beside the Wu-ting river;
They still live in their ladies' dreams in Springtime.
What Plant Is Not Yellow?
From the Book of Odes
What plant is not yellow?
What day is without a march?
What man is not on the move
Serving in the four quarters?
What plant is not black?
What man is not wifeless?
Heigho, for us soldiers!
We alone are not treated as men.
Not rhinoceroses, not tigers,
Yet we are loosed in this mighty waste.
Heigho, for us soldiers!
Day and night we never rest.
The fox with his broad brush
Lurks among the gloomy grass;
But our wagon with its bamboo body,
Rumbles along the road of Chou.
The Wild Geese
Lu Kuei-Meng (9th century)
From South to North, how long is the way?
Between them lie ten thousand bows and arrows.
Who can say, through the mist and fog,
How many birds can reach Heng-yang?
