Meng Jiangnü at the Long Wall
" ... weary and destitute (?) Farewell! If you were to send me winter clothes, I do not know what return I could make. "
At the time of his taking leave from his wife he did not speak for long,
For he hoped as it were between morning and evening to come back to his home
Who could think that he would suddenly meet disaster by pestle and hammer,
His soul be dissolved, his life finished — that he should perish at the frontier wall?
After he had taken leave and reached the Long Wall
The officials in charge of the work there treated him with bitter harshness.
When he died his body was at once built into the wall,
His wandering soul strayed afar amid the thorns and brambles:
" Weary and destitute on this long journey you came on purpose to see me
Bravely meeting wind and frost, wasting your energy.
A thousand times farewell! Go quickly home;
A poor soldier under the earth will not ever forget you. "
When his wife heard this, she burst into great sobbing;
" Little did I know that you my lord had perished at the Long Wall!
You tell me now that the bones of your body are built in to the Long Wall,
But how am I to know in what part of this Long Wall to look? "
Jiangnü smote herself and wailed to mighty Heaven,
Making plaint that so good a husband had perished all too soon
A wedded wife's intense devotion can move rivers and hills;
Her great wailing had such power that the Long Wall fell
An old poem says:
Over the ridges sad clouds rise,
In the empty wastes sorrowful is the voice of wailing.
If you say that men have not the power to move,
How was it that the Long Wall toppled?
Those stone ramparts, ranging over a thousand cubits,
At one stroke melted into the streams and hills
Could it be that the Wall had crashed and fallen
Only because a wedded wife had come?
This frontier land — strange beyond reason —
With cold heart could not endure to hear.
When she had finished wailing, her heart and soul were still lost in sorrow, grieving that her husband had suddenly been destroyed. She sighed out her faithful heart, anguish ever added to anguish. There were skulls without number; many dead men lay there. Among all the bones that were strewn this way and that, how was she to tell which were his?
She bit her finger till it bled, and dripped the blood on to the Long Wall to show her singleness of heart, that she might be able to pick out her husband's bones.
Jiangnü said sobbing, " I am at my wit's end;
His lovely substance is scattered about among the yellow sands.
I say to all these ridges and hummocks " Vouchsafe me a clear sign;
Among all these piles of skulls, tell me which is his."
Alas, alas, it is very hard to choose;
To see them causes sad thoughts to rise. "
One by one she takes them in her hand and looks hard at them;
Then she bites her finger and draws blood and puts them to the test:
" If it is my husband, the blood will sink deep into the bones;
But if it is not Ji Liang, the blood will remain apart
If only I can recognize them, I will take them home with me;
Let them not on my account leave me still in doubt. "
Stifled by her great sobbing, her voice then ceased,
From her two eyes there still flowed tears that were hard to stop
" If Mighty Heaven does not consent to give me what I ask
Then certainly I too will die at the Long Wall "
But there were as well many skulls that had no one to carry them away. Jiangnü was sorry for them and asked them: " All you skulls, in what prefecture is your home? When taking my husband's bones back, I could bring a message for you. If you have souls, I could guide them on their way. "
The skulls having thus been questioned by Meng Jiangnü
Knew now that they could send a message to their homes
The souls of the dead then replied to Ji Liang's wife:
" All of us were sons born into good families;
But the ruler of Qin sent us to work on the building of the Long Wall;
The hardship were endured were more than we could bear and we all died at our tasks:
Our corpses were scattered over the wastelands, no one knew what had become of us,
Spring and winter for ever we lie amid the yellow sands
Bring word to our wives that pine desolate in their bowers
Telling them to chant the Summons to the Soul and keep up the sacrifices
Make sure to record in your heart what we tell you now,
And if you see our fathers and mothers do us the kindness to tell them. "
At the time of his taking leave from his wife he did not speak for long,
For he hoped as it were between morning and evening to come back to his home
Who could think that he would suddenly meet disaster by pestle and hammer,
His soul be dissolved, his life finished — that he should perish at the frontier wall?
After he had taken leave and reached the Long Wall
The officials in charge of the work there treated him with bitter harshness.
When he died his body was at once built into the wall,
His wandering soul strayed afar amid the thorns and brambles:
" Weary and destitute on this long journey you came on purpose to see me
Bravely meeting wind and frost, wasting your energy.
A thousand times farewell! Go quickly home;
A poor soldier under the earth will not ever forget you. "
When his wife heard this, she burst into great sobbing;
" Little did I know that you my lord had perished at the Long Wall!
You tell me now that the bones of your body are built in to the Long Wall,
But how am I to know in what part of this Long Wall to look? "
Jiangnü smote herself and wailed to mighty Heaven,
Making plaint that so good a husband had perished all too soon
A wedded wife's intense devotion can move rivers and hills;
Her great wailing had such power that the Long Wall fell
An old poem says:
Over the ridges sad clouds rise,
In the empty wastes sorrowful is the voice of wailing.
If you say that men have not the power to move,
How was it that the Long Wall toppled?
Those stone ramparts, ranging over a thousand cubits,
At one stroke melted into the streams and hills
Could it be that the Wall had crashed and fallen
Only because a wedded wife had come?
This frontier land — strange beyond reason —
With cold heart could not endure to hear.
When she had finished wailing, her heart and soul were still lost in sorrow, grieving that her husband had suddenly been destroyed. She sighed out her faithful heart, anguish ever added to anguish. There were skulls without number; many dead men lay there. Among all the bones that were strewn this way and that, how was she to tell which were his?
She bit her finger till it bled, and dripped the blood on to the Long Wall to show her singleness of heart, that she might be able to pick out her husband's bones.
Jiangnü said sobbing, " I am at my wit's end;
His lovely substance is scattered about among the yellow sands.
I say to all these ridges and hummocks " Vouchsafe me a clear sign;
Among all these piles of skulls, tell me which is his."
Alas, alas, it is very hard to choose;
To see them causes sad thoughts to rise. "
One by one she takes them in her hand and looks hard at them;
Then she bites her finger and draws blood and puts them to the test:
" If it is my husband, the blood will sink deep into the bones;
But if it is not Ji Liang, the blood will remain apart
If only I can recognize them, I will take them home with me;
Let them not on my account leave me still in doubt. "
Stifled by her great sobbing, her voice then ceased,
From her two eyes there still flowed tears that were hard to stop
" If Mighty Heaven does not consent to give me what I ask
Then certainly I too will die at the Long Wall "
But there were as well many skulls that had no one to carry them away. Jiangnü was sorry for them and asked them: " All you skulls, in what prefecture is your home? When taking my husband's bones back, I could bring a message for you. If you have souls, I could guide them on their way. "
The skulls having thus been questioned by Meng Jiangnü
Knew now that they could send a message to their homes
The souls of the dead then replied to Ji Liang's wife:
" All of us were sons born into good families;
But the ruler of Qin sent us to work on the building of the Long Wall;
The hardship were endured were more than we could bear and we all died at our tasks:
Our corpses were scattered over the wastelands, no one knew what had become of us,
Spring and winter for ever we lie amid the yellow sands
Bring word to our wives that pine desolate in their bowers
Telling them to chant the Summons to the Soul and keep up the sacrifices
Make sure to record in your heart what we tell you now,
And if you see our fathers and mothers do us the kindness to tell them. "
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