While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead
\nI played about the front gate, pulling flowers.
\nYou came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse,
\nYou walked about my seat, playing with blue plums.
\nAnd we went on living in the village of Chokan:
\nTwo small people, without dislike or suspicion.<\/p>\n
At fourteen I married My Lord you.
\nI never laughed, being bashful.
\nLowering my head, I looked at the wall.
\nCalled to, a thousand times, I never looked back.<\/p>\n
At fifteen I stopped scowling,
\nI desired my dust to be mingled with yours
\nForever and forever and forever.
\nWhy should I climb the look out?<\/p>\n
At sixteen you departed,
\nYou went into far Ku-to-yen, by the river of swirling eddies,
\nAnd you have been gone five months.
\nThe monkeys make sorrowful noise overhead.<\/p>\n
You dragged your feet when you went out.
\nBy the gate now, the moss is grown, the different mosses,
\nToo deep to clear them away!
\nThe leaves fall early this autumn, in wind.
\nThe paired butterflies are already yellow with August
\nOver the grass in the West garden;
\nThey hurt me. I grow older.
\nIf you are coming down through the narrows of the river Kiang,
\nPlease let me know beforehand,
\nAnd I will come out to meet you
\nAs far as Cho-fu-Sa.<\/p>\n
By Rihaku<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead I played about the front gate, pulling flowers. You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse, You walked about my seat, playing with blue plums. And we went on living in the village of Chokan: Two small people, without dislike or suspicion. At fourteen I … Continue reading The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter by Ezra Pound<\/span>