Poetry
Fu Xuan's poems, primarily in the yuefu style, are noted for their powerful and empathetic portrayals of women. Translations of several of his sixty-odd extant poems can be found in the book New Songs from a Jade Terrace by Anne Birrell (ISBN 0-04-895026-2).
One of the more famous poems by Fu Xuan is "Woman" which goes as follows:
- How sad it is to be a woman!!
- Nothing on earth is held so cheap.
- Boy stand leaning at the door
- Like Gods fallen out of Heaven.
- Their hearts brave the Four Oceans,
- The wind and dust of a thousand miles.
- No one is glad when a girl is born:
- By her the family sets no store.
- When she grows up, she hides in her room
- Afraid to look at a man in the face.
- No one cries when she leaves her home—Sudden as clouds when the rain stops.
- She bows her head and composes her face,
- Her teeth are pressed on her red lips:
- She bows and kneels countless times.
- She must humble herself even to the servants.
- His love is distant as the stars in Heaven,
- Yet the sunflower bends towards the sun.
- Their hearts are more sundered than water and fire—A hundred evils are heaped upon her.
- Her face will follow the years changes:
- Her lord will find new pleasures.
- They that were once like the substance and shadow
- Are now as far from Hu as from Ch'in
- Yet Hu and Ch'in shall sooner meet
- That they whose parting is like Ts'an and Ch'en
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Famous quotes containing the word poetry:
“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
“He must be theory-mad beyond redemption who ... shall ... persist in attempting to reconcile the obstinate oils and waters of Poetry and Truth.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“the raw material of poetry in
all its rawness and
that which is on the other hand
genuine, you are interested in poetry.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)