Ancient Chinese Poetry

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
In 1899, Miss Archibald Little rather humorously compared the modern drinking songs of England--"Drink, puppies, drink!" with Chinese songs dating back 2500 years. Nice translations, too--but anyone know who W.A.P.M. was?

Adieu to the Old Year
(Chinese Drinking Song, 500 B.C.)
The voice of the cricket is heard in the hall;
The leaves of the forest are withered and sere;
My spirits they droop at those chirruping notes
So thoughtlessly sounding the knell of the year.
Yet why should we sigh at the change of a date,
When life’s flowing on in a full steady tide?
Come, let us be merry with those that we love;
For pleasure I measure there’s no one to chide.”
Translated by W.A.P.M.

Ms. Archibald Little wrote, “But this Chinese drinking song, which could without exciting any special comment appear upon a New Year’s card of to-day, was published in the Chinese Book of Odes 500 B.C. Twelve centuries later we find a decidedly prettier sentiment and finer touch in Li-tao-po, one of China’s favorite poets A.D. 720….

"This is an attempt to render the best-known ode of China’s favourite bard, A.D. 720:"

On Drinking Alone by Moonlight.
(8th century A.D.)
Here are flowers, and here is wine;
But where’s a friend with me to join
Hand to hand and heart to heart
In one full cup before we part?
Rather than to drink alone,
I’ll make bold to ask the moon
To condescend to lend her face
To grace the hour and the place.
Lo! She answers, and she brings
My shadow on her silver wings;
That makes three, and we shall be,
I ween, a merry company.
The modest moon declines the cup,
But shadow promptly takes it up;
And when I dance, my shadow fleet
Keeps measure with my flying feet.
Yet though the moon declines to tipple,
She dances in yon shining ripple;
And when I sing, my festive song
The echoes of the moon prolong.
Say, when shall we next meet together?
Surely not in cloudy weather;
For you, my boon companions dear,
Come only when the sky is clear.”
Translated by W.A.P.M.

"The fancy if not the sentiment of this song is so pretty, that it is hard to see how the nation that produced it can be rebuked for want of sentiment by the nation [England] that to this day sings, “Drink, puppies, drink.” Indeed, I think this Chinese drinking-song dating from the eighth century A.D. the very prettiest I have ever met with in any literature. It has three if not four of such graceful conceits as would alone make the success of a modern bard…."

Little, Archibald, Mrs. "Intimate China: The Chinese as I Have Seen Them," Hutchinson and Company, London, 1899
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