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:
“Firm in our beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.
A golden age of poetry and power
Of which this noonday’s the beginning hour.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)