The Earl of the Yellow River by Qu Yuan

From The Songs of Chu
An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poetry by Qu Yuan and others
edited and translated by Gopal Sukhu



The Earl of the Yellow River by Qu Yuan


With you I will roam the Nine Streams
Whirlwinds will raise waves across the flow
We will ride a water chariot with lotus canopy
Four dragons in harness, the outside bald, the inside horned
And we’ll climb the Kunlun Mountains and gaze in all directions
And my heart will fly unbound
Despair will come with sunset, but never a thought of home
For longing arrives with the thought of far shores
And the fish-scale rooftops and the dragon hall
And towers of purple cowry shells on palaces of cinnabar
What do you do, spirit, in the water?
You ride the white tortoise and chase the patterned fish
With you I will roam the islets of the river
As ice shards swarm downstream
Taking my hand you travel eastward
Squiring your beauty to the southern shores
Billow on billow waves come to greet me
And fish are my bridesmaids, shoal after shoal



The first man ever to be known for his poetry in China was Qu Yuan (340?–278? B.C.E.). His work is the core of the Chuci or Songs of Chu, the second-oldest anthology of Chinese verse. He was a high minister in the southern state of Chu. So distinctive and influential is his work, which includes some of the most beautiful liturgical poetry in the world, that literary historians think of it as the “second beginning” of Chinese poetry, the first being the ancient and quasi-scriptural Shijing or Book of Songs.