Our love was pure
As the snow on the mountains:
White as a moon
They’re telling me
Your thoughts are double
That’s why I’ve come
To break it off.
To-day we’ll drink
A cup of wine.
To-morrow we’ll part
Beside the Canal:
Walking about
Beside the Canal,
Where its branches divide
East and west.
Alas and alas,
And again alas.
So must a girl
Cry when she’s married,
If she find not a man
Of single heart,
Who will not leave her
Till her hair is white.
Cho Wēn-chün (2nd century BC) China
Translated by Arthur Waley
Source: A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems, Translated by Arthur Waley, Alfred A. Knopf, 1919
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