Methinks there's a geniusRoams in the mountains,Girdled with ivyAnd robed in wisteria,Lips ever smiling,Of noble demeanour,Driving the yellow pard,Tiger-attended,Couched in a chariotWith banners of cassia,Cloaked with the orchid,And crowned with azaleas;Culling the perfumeOf sweet flowers, he leavesIn the heart a dream-blossom,Memory haunting.But dark is the forestWhere now is my dwelling,Never the light of dayReaches its shadow.Thither a perilousPathway meanders.Lonely I standOn the lonelier hill-top,Cloudland beneath meAnd cloudland around me.Softly the wind bloweth,Softly the rain falls,Joy like a mist blotsThe thoughts of my home out;There none would honour me,Fallen from honours.I gather the larkspurOver the hillside,Blown mid the chaosOf boulder and bellbine;Hating the tyrantWho made me an outcast,Who of his leisureNow spares me no moment:Drinking the mountain spring,Shading at noon-dayUnder the cypressMy limbs from the sun glare.What though he summon meBack to his palace,I cannot fallTo the level of princes.Now rolls the thunder deep,Down the cloud valley,And the gibbons around meHowl in the long night.The gale through the moaning treesFitfully rushes.Lonely and sleeplessI think of my thanklessMaster, and vainly wouldCradle my sorrow.

The work and its creator

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Creator: Ch`u Yuan
Nationality / cultural background: Chinese
Work / edition: 1909 translation

Translation: L. Cranmer-Byng · English

Historical public-domain text. Selected passage; line-end whitespace normalised. No generated quotation.

In the source: The Land of Exile

Selected for the Brief on 26 Sep 2026. This date records our selection, rather than when the work was created.