GUAN! GUAN! CRY THE FISH HAWKS
from Zhounan (The Odes of Zhou and the South)
Guan! Guan! Cry the fish hawks
on sandbars in the river:
a mild-mannered good girl,
fine match for the gentleman.
A ragged fringe is the floating-heart,
left and right we trail it:
that mild-mannered good girl,
awake, asleep, I search for her.
I search but cannot find her,
awake, asleep, thinking of her,
endlessly, endlessly,
turning, tossing from side to side.
A ragged fringe is the floating-heart,
left and right we pick it:
the mild-mannered good girl,
harp and lute make friends with her.
A ragged fringe is the floating-heart,
left and right we sort it:
the mild-mannered good girl,
bell and drum delight her.
[NOTES]
This Chinese traditional song composed from a poem more than three thousand
years old of a Noble Chinese man consumed with love for a lowly water plant
harvester.
Zhounan: (The Odes of Zhou and the South) In the early years of the Western
Zhou Dynasty, Lord Dan of Zhou (reigned 1063-1057 B.C.) made Luo City
(today's Luoyang City in Henan Province) its capital and from there he ruled
over other dukes. The poems in Zhounan are that from Zhou and the states
south of Zhou, covering an area of today's Henan and Hubei Provinces.
