Classic Poem

From the Scythian cave came the heavenly horse,
With tiger-stripe back and dragon-wing bones.
Neighing to clouds in the blue. Shaking a mane of green.
Orchid strong jaw sinew, speed tokened cheeks,
he vanished when he ran
Over the Kunlun. To the West Edge of Earth.
His four feet never stumbled.
At cockcrow groomed in Yan, at dusk he was foddered in Yue,
The path of a spirit, a lightning flash, galloping past as a blur.

A heavenly horse command. A flying dragon response
Eyes bright as the Evening Star, his breast a brace of ducks,
His tail was like a comet, his neck like a thirsty crow;
Red light spewed from his mouth,
in his sweat canals were pearls.
He once accompanied the Timely Dragon
to leap in the heavenly streets,
Haltered gold and bridled moon that shone in the City of Stars.
A spirit apart, proud and assured,
he vaulted the Nine Domains;
But even with white jades like a mountain,
who could venture to buy?
He turned and laughed at the Purple Swallows,
Thought to himself, " How dumb your kind. "
The heavenly horse dashed forward
He longed for the sovereign's coach
The reins let out he could leap and rear
to tumble the passing clouds
But his feet moved in check for ten thousand miles,
And he gazed from afar at the gates to the throne
If you meet no horseman like Master Cold Wind,
Who will notice a scion of vanishing light?

White clouds in a blue sky,
The hills are far away
When the salt wagon piled high climbs the precipitous grade,
One violates custom and runs against reason,
fearing the close of day.

Bo Le's art to curry and clip was lost along the way;
In my youth they used my strength, they cast me off in age.
I would like to meet a Tian Zifang
That he, in pity, might care for me,
But though he had Jade Mountain grain,
My flesh could not be healed
A hard frost in the Fifth Month
withered the buds on the cinnamon tree;
In the stall I furrow my brow,
the bit of injustice in my teeth
I beg that you will redeem me, send me off to Emperor Mu,
That I may yet play with my shadow
and dance by the Jasper Pool.