孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
楚怨
Chu's Regret
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秋入楚江水 独照汨罗魂 手把绿荷泣 意愁珠泪翻 九门不可入 一犬吠千门 |
As autumn enters Chu's rivers' waters, its Lonely light shines on Miluo River's ghost. His hands, like lotus pads, cup his tears which Fall like pearls of his unspoken protest. Now, he cannot enter the nine gates when Any dog can bark at the palace doors. |
-- 孟郊
废话
First, I think this is a practice poem written at the same time as the last two. Meng Jiao is young and traveling and sitting on Wizard Mountain writing poems which play with somewhat conventional themes.
Second, this poem explains who the source of hope is that Meng Jiao spoke of in an earlier poem about Chu. The hope comes from the example of Qu Yuan (屈原) a minister of Chu under King Huai during the Ten Kingdoms. When internal corruption led to the fall of Chu to the Qin, Qu Yuan walked into the Miluo River carrying a big rock. His death of protest is the source of the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. It is curious to me that those who commit suicide serve as examples. They die; evil men go on. But Qu has even been co-opted by Mao Zedong in modern times as an exemplary model for Chinese communists. Mao's message here is apparently, "If you don't like the government, kill yourself." I doubt if this is what Qu Yuan had in mind.
Lastly, the "nine gates" are the gates of the capital city. Beijing had nine gates up until Mao instructed the Cultural Revolution kids to tear them down. The body has nine gates or orifices. So a healthy city has always needed nine gates too. Which explains, perhaps, why Beijing is so unhealthy these days.