THE RIVER MERCHANT’S

WIFE: A LETTERBy

Li Po(701-762)

1 st While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead

2 nd I played about the front gate, pulling flowers.

3 rd You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,

4 th You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.   

5 th And we went on living in the village of Chokan:

6th Two small people, without dislike or suspicion. 

7 th At fourteen I married My Lord you.

8 th I never laughed, being bashful.

9 th Lowering my head, I looked at the wall.

10 th Called to, a thousand times, I never looked

back.

11th At fifteen I stopped scowling,

12th I desired my dust to be mingled with yours

13th Forever and forever, and forever.

14th Why should I climb the look out?

16th At sixteen you departed

17th You went into far Ku-to-yen, by the river of

swirling eddies,18th And you have been

gone five months.19th The monkeys make

sorrowful noise overhead.

20th You dragged your feet when you went out.

21st By the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,

22nd Too deep to clear them away!23rd The leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.24th The paired butterflies are already yellow

with August25th Over the grass in the West garden;

26th They hurt me. I grow older.27th If you are coming down through the

narrows of the river Kiang,28th Please let me know beforehand,29th And I will come out to meet you

30th As far as Cho-fu-Sa.*