The Garden Of Bright Waters
One Hundred And Twenty Asiatic Love Poems
Translated by Edward Powys Mathers 1920
Dedication: To My Wife
INTRODUCTION
From the Chinese of Chang-Chi (770-850).
CONTENTS
The Princess of Qulzum
Come, my Beloved!
Ballade of Muhammad Khan
Ghazal of Tavakkul
Ghazal of Sayyid Kamal
Ghazal of Sayyid Ahmad
Ghazal of Pir Muhammad
Ballade of Nurshali
Ghazal of Muhammad Din Tilai
Micra
Ballade of Muhammad Din Tilai
Ghazal of Mira
Ghazal of Majid Shah
Ghazal of Mira
Ballade of Ajam the Washerman
Ghazal of Isa Akhun Zada
The Bamboo Garden
Stranger Things have Happened
Nocturne
The Gao Flower
The Girl of Ke-Mo
The Little Woman of Clear River
Waiting to Marry a Student
A Song for Two
Sand
Two Similes
Melodian
The Lost Lady
Love Brown and Bitter
Okhouan
Lying Down Alone
Old Greek Lovers
Night and Morning
In a Yellow Frame
Because the Good are Never Fair
White and Green and Black Tears
A Conceit
Values
What Love Is
The Dancing Heart
The Great Offence
An Escape
Three Queens
Her Nails
Perturbation at Dawn
The Resurrection of the Tattooed Girl
Moallaka of Antar
Moallaka of Amr Ebn Kultum
Comparisons
A Canker in the Heart
Disquiet
Vengeance
The Flight
We were Two Green Rushes
Song Writer Paid with Air
The Bad Road
The Western Window
In Lukewarm Weather
Written on White Frost
A Flute of Marvel
The Willow-Leaf
A Poet Looks at the Moon
We Two in a Park at Night
The Jade Staircase
The Morning Shower
A Virtuous Wife
Written on a Wall in Spring
A Poet Thinks
In the Cold Night
Winter Comes
Part of a Ghazal
Fard
Incurable
A Poem
Fard
Mortification
Fard
Grief and the Sleeve
Drink Song
A Boat Comes In
The Opinion of Men
Old Scent of the Plum-tree
An Orange Sleeve
Invitation
The Clocks of Death
Green Food for a Queen
The Cushion
A Single Night
At a Dance of Girls
Alone One Night
Walking up a Hill at Dawn
Proposal of Marriage
You do not Want Me, Zohrah
Tears
The Dream
Separation
Paradise
Misadventure
Khap-Salung
The Holy Swan
Fire and Love
Hearts of Women
To His Love instead of a Promised Picture Book
Too Short a Night
The Roses
I Asked my Love
A Request
See You Have Dancers
The Sighing Heart
Handing over the Gun
Honey
The Love of the Archer Prince
Distich
Things Seen in Battle
Hunter's Song
The Bath
Distich
A Proverb
The Garden Of Bright Waters
AFGHANISTAN
THE PRINCESS OF QULZUM
Nur Uddin
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
COME, MY BELOVED!
Muhammad Din
From the Pus'hto of Muhammad Din Tilai (Afghans, nineteenth century).
BALLADE OF MUHAMMAD KHAN
Muhammad Khan
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
GHAZAL OF TAVAKKUL
Tavakkul
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
GHAZAL OF SAYYID KAMAL
Sayyid Kamal
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
GHAZAL OF SAYYID AHMAD
Sayyid Ahmad
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
GHAZAL, IN LAMENT FOR THE DEAD, OF PIR MUHAMMAD
Pir Muhammad
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
BALLADE OF NURSHALI
Nurshali
From the Pus'hto (Afghans).
GHAZAL OF MUHAMMAD DIN TILAI
Muhammad Din
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
MICRA
From the Pus'hto of Mirza Rahchan Kayil (Afghans, nineteenth century).
BALLADE OF MUHAMMAD DIN TILAI
Muhammad Din
Tilai
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
GHAZAL OF MIRA
Mira
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
GHAZAL OF MAJID SHAH
Majid Shah
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
GHAZAL OF MIRA
Mira
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
BALLADE OF AJAM THE WASHERMAN
Ajam
From the Pus'hto (Afghans).
GHAZAL OF ISA AKHUN ZADA
Isa Gal
From the Pus'hto (Afghans, nineteenth century).
ANNAM
THE BAMBOO GARDEN
Song of Annam.
STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED
Song of Annam.
NOCTURNE
Song of Annam.
THE GAO FLOWER
Song of Annam.
THE GIRL OF KE-MO
Song of Annam.
THE LITTLE WOMAN OF CLEAR RIVER
Song of Annam.
WAITING TO MARRY A STUDENT
Song of Annam.
A SONG FOR TWO
Song of Annam.
ARABIC
SAND
From the Arabic of John Duncan.
TWO SIMILES
From the Arabic of John Duncan.
MELODIAN
From the Arabic of John Duncan.
THE LOST LADY
From the Arabic of John Duncan.
LOVE BROWN AND BITTER
From the Arabic of John Duncan.
OKHOUAN
From the Arabic.
LYING DOWN ALONE
From the Arabic of John Duncan.
OLD GREEK LOVERS
From the Arabic of John Duncan.
NIGHT AND MORNING
From the Arabic (School of Ebn-el-Moattaz) (ninth century).
IN A YELLOW FRAME
From the Arabic of Hefny-bey-Nassif (contemporary).
BECAUSE THE GOOD ARE NEVER FAIR
From the Arabic of Ahmed Bey Chawky (contemporary).
WHITE AND GREEN AND BLACK TEARS
From the Arabic (School of Ebn-el-Farid) (thirteenth century).
A CONCEIT
From the Arabic of Ebn Kalakis Abu El Fath Nasrallah (eleventh century).
VALUES
From the Arabic.
WHAT LOVE IS
From the Arabic.
THE DANCING HEART
From the Arabic of Urak El Hutail.
THE GREAT OFFENCE
From the Arabic of Abu Nuas (eighth century).
From the Arabic of Abu Nuas (eighth century).
THREE QUEENS
From the Arabic of Haroun El Raschid (eighth century).
HER NAILS
From the Arabic of Yazid Ebn Moauia (seventh century).
PERTURBATION AT DAWN
From the Arabic of Ebn Maatuk (seventeenth century).
THE RESURRECTION OF THE TATTOOED GIRL
From the Arabic of Yazid Ebn Moauia (seventh century).
MOALLAKA
From the Arabic of Antar (late sixth and early seventh centuries).
MOALLAKA
From the Arabic of Amr Ebn Kultum (seventh century).
BALUCHISTAN
COMPARISONS
Popular Song of Baluchistan.
BURMA
A CANKER IN THE HEART
From the Burmese (nineteenth century) (¿ by Asmapur).
CAMBODIA
DISQUIET
Love Poem of Cambodia.
CAUCASUS
VENGEANCE
Ballad of the Caucasus.
THE FLIGHT
Love Ballad of the Caucasus.
CHINA
WE WERE TWO GREEN RUSHES
From the Chinese of J. Wing (nineteenth century).
SONG WRITER PAID WITH AIR
From the Chinese of J. Wing (nineteenth century).
THE BAD ROAD
From the Chinese.
THE WESTERN WINDOW
From the Chinese of Wang Ch'ang Ling (eighth century).
IN LUKEWARM WEATHER
From the Chinese of Wang Ch'ang Ling (eighth century).
WRITTEN ON WHITE FROST
From the Chinese of Wang Chi (sixth and seventh centuries).
A FLUTE OF MARVEL
From the Chinese of Li Po (705-763).
THE WILLOW-LEAF
From the Chinese of Chang Chiu Ling (675-740).
A POET LOOKS AT THE MOON
From the Chinese of Chang Jo Hsu.
WE TWO IN A PARK AT NIGHT
From the Chinese of J. Wing (nineteenth century).
THE JADE STAIRCASE
From the Chinese of Li Po (705-762).
THE MORNING SHOWER
From the Chinese of J.S. Ling (1901).
A VIRTUOUS WIFE
From the Chinese of Chang Chi (770-850).
WRITTEN ON A WALL IN SPRING
From the Chinese (early nineteenth century).
A POET THINKS
From the Chinese of Liu Chi (1311-1375).
IN THE COLD NIGHT
From the Chinese of Yuan Mei (1715-1797).
DAGHESTAN
WINTER COMES
Song of Daghestan.
GEORGIA
PART OF A GHAZAL
By Rustwell of Georgia (from the Tariel, twelfth century).
HINDUSTAN
FARD
From the Hindustani of Mir Taqui (eighteenth century).
INCURABLE
From the Hindustani of Yaquin (eighteenth century).
A POEM
From the Hindustani of Mir Taqui (eighteenth century).
FARD
From the Hindustani of Shaguil (eighteenth century).
MORTIFICATION
From the Hindustani of Hatifi (eighteenth century).
FARD
From the Hindustani of Miyan Jagnu (eighteenth century).
JAPAN
GRIEF AND THE SLEEVE
From the Japanese of Hide-Yoshi.
DRINK SONG
A BOAT COMES IN
THE OPINION OF MEN
OLD SCENT OF THE PLUM-TREE
From the Japanese of Fujiwara Ietaka. (1158-1237).
AN ORANGE SLEEVE
From the Japanese of Nari-hira.
INVITATION
From the Japanese of a Courtesan of Nagasaki.
From the Japanese of the Wife of Bes-syo Ko-saburo Naga-haru, (sixteenth century).
GREEN FOOD FOR A QUEEN
From the Japanese of the Mikado Ko-ko Ten-no, (ninth century).
From the Japanese of the daughter of Taira-no Tsu-gu-naka.
A SINGLE NIGHT
From the Japanese of the wife of the Mikado Sui-toka In (twelfth century).
AT A DANCE OF GIRLS
From the Japanese of So-dzyo Hend-zyo
ALONE ONE NIGHT
From the Japanese of Kaik-no Motto-no Hitomaro (seventh and eighth centuries).
KAFIRISTAN
WALKING UP A HILL AT DAWN
Song of Kafiristan.
PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE
Popular Song of Kafiristan.
KAZACKS
YOU DO NOT WANT ME?
Kazack poem of the Chief Gahuan-Beyg (1850-1885).
KOREA
TEARS
Lyric of Korea.
THE DREAM
Lyric of Korea.
SEPARATION
Song of Korea.
KURDISTAN
PARADISE
Love Ballad of Kurdistan.
LAOS
MISADVENTURE
KHAP-SALUNG
THE HOLY SWAN
MANCHURIA
FIRE AND LOVE
Folk Song of Manchuria.
HEARTS OF WOMEN
Street Song of Manchuria.
PERSIA
TO HIS LOVE INSTEAD OF A PROMISED PICTURE-BOOK
The greater and the lesser ills:
From the Modern Persian.
TOO SHORT A NIGHT
From the Persian of Abu-Said (978-1062).
From the Persian of Abu-Yshac (middle of the tenth century).
I ASKED MY LOVE
From the Persian of Abu-Said (978-1062).
A REQUEST
Rondagui
From the Persian of Rondagui (tenth century).
SEE YOU HAVE DANCERS
From the Persian of Omar Khayyam (eleventh century).
SIAM
THE SIGHING HEART
Song of Siam.
SYRIA
HANDING OVER THE GUN
Song of Syria.
TATARS
HONEY
Song of the Tatars.
THIBET
Street Song of Thibet.
TURKESTAN
DISTICH
From the Turkic of Hussein Baikrani.
THINGS SEEN IN A BATTLE
From the Turkic.
HUNTER'S SONG
From the Turkic.
TURKEY
THE BATH
From the Modern Turkish.
DISTICH
From the Turkish of Sultan Selim I.
A PROVERB
From the Turkish.
ENVOY IN AUTUMN
From the Chinese of Tu Fu (712-770).
TRANSLATOR'S NOTES
I am hoping that some readers will look on this collection primarily as
a book of poems. The finding and selection of material and the shaping
of the verses is my principal part in it. Most of the songs have been
written from, or by comparing, the literal translations of French and
Italian scholars, checked wherever possible by my own knowledge. When my
first and very great debt to these has been stated, there remains my
debt to the late John Duncan, to Mr. J. Wing, and to a friend, a
distinguished writer both in Persian and Turkish, who wishes to remain
unnamed. The kindness of these writers lies in trusting their work to my
translation and helping me in that task. My book also owes much to
suggestions prompted by the wide learning of Mr. L. Cranmer-Byng. My
final debt is to him and to another generous critic. I have arranged my
poems in the alphabetical order of their countries, and added short
notes wherever I considered them necessary, at the instance of some
kindly reviewers of an earlier book, which was not so arranged
and provided.
AFGHANISTAN
SIKANDER, Alexander the Great.
SHALIBAGH, the notable garden of Shalimar in Lahore, planted by Shah
Jahan in 1637.
ABDEL QADIR GILANI, Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, founder of the Qadirite
order of the Dervishes, twelfth century.
ANNAM
K'IEN NIÜ and CHIK NÜ: the legend of these two stars comes from China
and is told in Japan. Readers are referred to that section of Mr. L.
Cranmer-Byng's A Lute of Jade which deals delightfully with Po-Chü-i;
and to Lafcadio Hearn's Romance of the Milky Way.
ARABIC
ANTAR, the hero Antar Ebn Cheddad Ebn Amr Corad, who lived in the late
sixth and early seventh centuries, owes his European reputation to
Siret Antar, the Adventures of Antar, or more exactly the Conduct of
Antar, written by Abul-Moyyed "El Antari" in the twelfth century. This
book tells of the fighter's feats in war and of his love for his cousin
Abla; and these are the themes of Antar's own poems.
AN ESCAPE: in this poem Abu Nuas, the Court poet, tells of an adventure
of the Khalif Haroun. There is a story that the Khalif, being set back
by the answer of his lady, called his poets in the morning and bade them
write a poem round the phrase, "Words of a night to bring the day." All
were rewarded for their work save Abu Nuas; and he was condemned to
death for spying through keyholes on his master. But after he had proved
an alibi, he also was rewarded.
"JOHN DUNCAN was a lowland Scot, who lived in Edinburgh until he was
between twenty and twenty-five years old. He was educated at one of the
Scots schools, and knew his way about the University if he was not
actually a student there. He certainly had enough money to live on. A
love affair in which he must have been infamously treated caused him to
leave Scotland. Within a year or two he was an established member of a
small tribe of nomadic Arabs, and eventually he became in speech and
appearance one of them, living their lazy, pastoral life and travelling
up and down with them the whole line of the southwest coast of the
Persian Gulf. Before his death, which occurred last year, at the age of
forty-two or forty-three, he had become acquainted with the whole of
habitable Arabia.
"Let Mr. Mathers take up the story as he told it to me: 'He married an
Arab, and all his forty-odd poems are addressed to her. I saw only a
snapshot of her, which showed her to be beautiful. In her he certainly
found healing for the wound his abnormally fiery and sensitive nature
had taken from the first woman. She pulled together an intellect rather
easily subdued. I only knew him after her death (his reason for
travelling to this country), and a dazed, utterly unpractical and
uninterested habit of mind, which alternated with his brilliance of
speech and to a less degree of thought, was probably a reversion to the
psychic state which his marriage had cured.
" 'Like so many to whom life has at one time given a paralysing shock,
Duncan was extremely reticent, save when he could lead the conversation,
and be confidential at points of his own choosing; and he was not an
easy man to question. The disappointment which had driven him from his
country certainly made him more bitter against the British than any
other man I have listened to. All his considerable wit and the natural
acid of his thought were directed against our ideas, institutions,
and beliefs.
" 'His one sane enthusiasm, English lyric verse, of whose depths,
main-stream, and back-waters his knowledge was profound, formed one-half
of his conversation.
" 'His English in talking was rich and varied, and it was an ironic
caprice which made him refuse to write in that language. I doubt,
though, whether he would have composed with ease in any tongue, for he
found it hard to concentrate, and his small stock of verse was the
outcome of ten years of unoccupied life. He approved, rather mockingly,
my promise to try to find an English equivalent for some of them; and I
think I have copies of all he wrote.
" 'One not acquainted with the man might find them rather hard to render,
as, had he been an Arab actually, still he would have been the most
unconventional of poets, neglecting form and the literary language.'"
My most cordial thanks are due to The Bookworm, of the Weekly
Dispatch, for permission to make this long quotation from an article
headed, "The Strange Story of John Duncan, the Arab-Scot," which
appeared over his nom de plume in the issue of that newspaper for
March 30, 1919.
CHINA
J. WING: I have already translated three of this writer's poems:
"English Girl," "Climbing after Nectarines," and "Being together at
Night." These may be found in Coloured Stars. Mr. Wing is an
American-born Chinese and practises the profession of a valet.
JAPAN
THE CLOCKS OF DEATH: this poem is a zi-sei, or lyric made at the point
of death. Naga-Haru committed suicide after an unsuccessful defence of
the strong castle Mi-Ki against Hashiba Hideyoshi in 1580. His wife
followed his example, composing this poem as she died.
WAKANA, the turnip cabbage, whose leaves are eaten in early spring. The
Mikado is lamenting a sudden realisation that he is too old for
his love.
THE CUSHION: the poetess, daughter of Tsu-gu-naka, lord of Su-Wo, while
at a party, asked for a cushion. A certain Iye-tada offered his arm for
her to lean her head against, and she answered with these lines.
STREET SONGS: the three poems which I have so called are written in
everyday colloquial Japanese. The words of the old language, which are
the ornament of literary verse, are almost entirely excluded from these
songs. In them one finds a superabundance of auxiliaries, and the
presence of these marks a clear line between the literary and the
folk-idiom.
KAZACKS
TAMOUR-LENG, Tamerlane. The facts of "You Do Not Want Me" are
historical; but it should be added that Gahuan-Beyg succeeded in
overcoming Zohrah's indifference, and that a few months after their
marriage he beheaded her with his own hand for speaking to another man.
LAOS
THE LOVE NIGHTS OF LAOS, "Wan-Pak" Nights, at the eighth evening of the
waxing or waning of the moon, when even Buddha has no fault to find with
love-making in the thickets. Songs, of which I have translated three,
are sung on these nights to the accompaniments of the "Khane," a
pan-pipe of seven flutes; some being reserved for the singing of the
wandering bands of girls, and others for answer by the youths.
PERSIA
THE ROSES, this rubai made Abu Yshac famous. He died at least twenty
years before the birth of Omar Khayyam. Readers will have been struck by
the similarity of idea in "The Roses" and in two lines in
Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat:
I often wonder what the vintners buy
One-half so precious as the goods they sell.
THIBET
THE LOVE OF THE ARCHER PRINCE: this form of poem, with one rhyme and
repetitive and increasing lines, is a familiar one in Thibet; and thence
it has entered Kafiristan and become a popular manner of composition
Archipelago. English readers will remember an analogous poem, "The House
that Jack built."