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:
“When I said.
A rose is a rose is a rose.
And then later made that into a ring I made poetry and what
did I do I caressed completely caressed and addressed
a noun.”
—Gertrude Stein (18741946)
“An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.”
—Raymond Chandler (18881959)
“Loves the only thing Ive thought of or read about since I was knee-high. Thats what I always dreamed of, of meeting somebody and falling in love. And when that remarkable thing happened, I was going to recite poetry to her for hours about how her hearts an angels wing and her hair the strings of a heavenly harp. Instead I got drunk and hollered at her and called her a harpy.”
—Ben Hecht (18931964)