On Seeing A Pupil Of Kung-sun Dance The Chien-ch`i Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB BCDEFG HIB JKLM NOOHP IQRL DDLS TUVW| On the nineteenth day of the tenth month of the second year of Ta li November in the residence of | A |
| Yuan Ch ih Lieutenant Governor of K uei chou I saw Li Shih er niang of Lin ying dance the chien ch i | B |
| Impressed by the brilliance and thrust of her style I asked her whom she had studied under I am a pupil of | A |
| Kung sun'' was the reply | B |
| - | |
| I remember in the fifth year of K ai yuan when I was still a little lad seeing Kung sun dance the chien ch i | B |
| and the hun t o at Yen ch eng For purity of technique and self confident attack she was unrivalled in her day | C |
| From the royal command performers'' and the insiders'' of the Spring Garden and Pear Garden schools in the | D |
| palace down to the official call'' dancers outside there was no one during the early years of His Sagely Pacific | E |
| and Divinely Martial Majesty who understood this dance as she did Where now is that lovely figure in its | F |
| gorgeous costume Now even I am an old white haired man and this pupil of hers is well past her prime | G |
| - | |
| Having found out about the pupil's antecedents I now realized that what I had been watching was a faithful | H |
| reproduction of the great dancer's interpretation The train of reflections set off by this discovery so moved me | I |
| that I felt inspired to compose a ballad on the chien ch i | B |
| - | |
| Some years ago Chang Hsu the great master of the grass writing'' style of calligraphy having several times | J |
| seeen Kung sun dance the West River chien ch i at Yeh hsein afterwards discovered to his immense | K |
| gratification that his calligraphy had greatly improved This gives one some idea of the sort of person Kung sun | L |
| was | M |
| - | |
| In time past there was a lovely woman called Kung sun whose chien ch i astonished the whole world Audiences numerous as | N |
| the hills watched awestruck as she danced and to their reeling senses the world seemed to go on rising and falling long after | O |
| she had finished dancing Her flashing swoop was like the nine suns falling transfixed by the Mighty Archer's arrows her | O |
| soaring flight like the lords of the sky driving their dragon teams aloft her advance like the thunder gathering up its dreadful | H |
| rage her stoppings like seas and rivers locked in the cold glint of ice | P |
| - | |
| The crimson lips the pearl encrusted sleeves are now at rest But in her latter years there had been a pupil to whom she | I |
| transmitted the fragrance of her art And now in the city of the White Emperor the handsome woman from Lin ying performs | Q |
| this dance with superb spirit Her answers to my questions have revealed that there was good reason to admire my ensuing | R |
| reflections fill me with painful emotion | L |
| - | |
| Of the eight thousand women who served our late Emperor Kung sun was from the first the leading performer of the | D |
| chien ch i Fifty years have now gone by like a flick of the hand fifty years in which rebellions and disorders darkened the | D |
| royal house The pupils of the Pear Garden have vanished like the mist And now here is this dancer with the cold winter sun | L |
| shining on her fading features | S |
| - | |
| South of the Hill of Golden Grain the boughs of the trees already interlace On the rocky walls of Ch u t ang the dead grasses | T |
| blow forlornly At the glittering feast the shrill flutes have once more concluded When pleasure is at its height sorrow follows | U |
| The moon rises in the east and I depart an old man who does not know where he is going but whose feet calloused from | V |
| much walking in the wild mountains make him wearier and wearier of the pace | W |
Tu Fu
(1)
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