Song Of The Guitar. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEBFBGHIJKJLMNOPEA QRSKTNAUVGWXBXYZXXMJ A2B2C2RD2AXE2F2G2H2I 2XXJ2XBXK2BL2M2I2N2X BA2I2I2O2P2Q2I2R2S2T 2U2V2LI2W2LXBJ2X2XX| In the tenth year of Yuanhe I was banished and demoted to be assistant official in Jiujiang In the summer of the next year I was seeing a friend leave Penpu and heard in the midnight from a neighbouring boat a guitar played in the manner of the capital Upon inquiry I found that the player had formerly been a dancing girl there and in her maturity had been married to a merchant I invited her to my boat to have her play for us She told me her story heyday and then unhappiness Since my departure from the capital I had not felt sad but that night after I left her I began to realize my banishment And I wrote this long poem six hundred and twelve characters | A |
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| I was bidding a guest farewell at night on the Xunyang River | B |
| Where maple leaves and full grown rushes rustled in the autumn | C |
| I the host had dismounted my guest had boarded his boat | D |
| And we raised our cups and wished to drink but alas there was no music | E |
| For all we had drunk we felt no joy and were parting from each other | B |
| When the river widened mysteriously toward the full moon | F |
| We had heard a sudden sound a guitar across the water | B |
| Host forgot to turn back home and guest to go his way | G |
| We followed where the melody led and asked the player's name | H |
| The sound broke off then reluctantly she answered | I |
| We moved our boat near hers invited her to join us | J |
| Summoned more wine and lanterns to recommence our banquet | K |
| Yet we called and urged a thousand times before she started toward us | J |
| Still hiding half her face from us behind her guitar | L |
| She turned the tuning pegs and tested several strings | M |
| We could feel what she was feeling even before she played | N |
| Each string a meditation each note a deep thought | O |
| As if she were telling us the ache of her whole life | P |
| She knit her brows flexed her fingers then began her music | E |
| Little by little letting her heart share everything with ours | A |
| She brushed the strings twisted them slow swept them plucked them | Q |
| First the air of The Rainbow Skirt then The Six Little Ones | R |
| The large strings hummed like rain | S |
| The small strings whispered like a secret | K |
| Hummed whispered and then were intermingled | T |
| Like a pouring of large and small pearls into a plate of jade | N |
| We heard an oriole liquid hidden among flowers | A |
| We heard a brook bitterly sob along a bank of sand | U |
| By the checking of its cold touch the very string seemed broken | V |
| As though it could not pass and the notes dying away | G |
| Into a depth of sorrow and concealment of lament | W |
| Told even more in silence than they had told in sound | X |
| A silver vase abruptly broke with a gush of water | B |
| And out leapt armored horses and weapons that clashed and smote | X |
| And before she laid her pick down she ended with one stroke | Y |
| And all four strings made one sound as of rending silk | Z |
| There was quiet in the east boat and quiet in the west | X |
| And we saw the white autumnal moon enter the river's heart | X |
| When she had slowly placed the pick back among the strings | M |
| She rose and smoothed her clothing and formal courteous | J |
| Told us how she had spent her girlhood at the capital | A2 |
| Living in her parents' house under the Mount of Toads | B2 |
| And had mastered the guitar at the age of thirteen | C2 |
| With her name recorded first in the class roll of musicians | R |
| Her art the admiration even of experts | D2 |
| Her beauty the envy of all the leading dancers | A |
| How noble youths of Wuling had lavishly competed | X |
| And numberless red rolls of silk been given for one song | E2 |
| And silver combs with shell inlay been snapped by her rhythms | F2 |
| And skirts the colour of blood been spoiled with stains of wine | G2 |
| Season after season joy had followed joy | H2 |
| Autumn moons and spring winds had passed without her heeding | I2 |
| Till first her brother left for the war and then her aunt died | X |
| And evenings went and evenings came and her beauty faded | X |
| With ever fewer chariots and horses at her door | J2 |
| So that finally she gave herself as wife to a merchant | X |
| Who prizing money first careless how he left her | B |
| Had gone a month before to Fuliang to buy tea | X |
| And she had been tending an empty boat at the river's mouth | K2 |
| No company but the bright moon and the cold water | B |
| And sometimes in the deep of night she would dream of her triumphs | L2 |
| And be wakened from her dreams by the scalding of her tears | M2 |
| Her very first guitar note had started me sighing | I2 |
| Now having heard her story I was sadder still | N2 |
| We are both unhappy to the sky's end | X |
| We meet We understand What does acquaintance matter | B |
| I came a year ago away from the capital | A2 |
| And am now a sick exile here in Jiujiang | I2 |
| And so remote is Jiujiang that I have heard no music | I2 |
| Neither string nor bamboo for a whole year | O2 |
| My quarters near the River Town are low and damp | P2 |
| With bitter reeds and yellowed rushes all about the house | Q2 |
| And what is to be heard here morning and evening | I2 |
| The bleeding cry of cuckoos the whimpering of apes | R2 |
| On flowery spring mornings and moonlit autumn nights | S2 |
| I have often taken wine up and drunk it all alone | T2 |
| Of course there are the mountain songs and the village pipes | U2 |
| But they are crude and strident and grate on my ears | V2 |
| And tonight when I heard you playing your guitar | L |
| I felt as if my hearing were bright with fairy music | I2 |
| Do not leave us Come sit down Play for us again | W2 |
| And I will write a long song concerning a guitar | L |
| Moved by what I said she stood there for a moment | X |
| Then sat again to her strings and they sounded even sadder | B |
| Although the tunes were different from those she had played before | J2 |
| The feasters all listening covered their faces | X2 |
| But who of them all was crying the most | X |
| This Jiujiang official My blue sleeve was wet | X |
Bai Juyi
(1)
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