帕布莉卡Then suddenly a horseman galloped up,
Down leaped the rider eagerly — ’twas he!
They sat together and he whispered low:
“My love shall last to all eternity!
Only a short while with your brother stay,
The little while my yamen duties take.
Then I’ll come back … Let not your heart be sore!
I’ll claim you for my very own once more!”
Poor Lanzhi, sobbing, fondly plucked his sleeve.
“Oh, what a comfort to me is your love:
And if you cannot bear to give me up,
Then come, but come before it is too late!
Be your love strong, enduring as the rocks!
Be mine resistant as the creeping vine!
For what more fixed than the eternal rocks?
Yet when I think upon my brother, lord
And tyrant of his household, then I fear
He will not look on me with kindliness,
And I shall suffer from his rage and scorn”
At length in tears the loving couple parted,
And lengthening distance left them broken-hearted.
When Lanzhi, all unheralded, reached home,
Doubt and suspicion clouded every mind.
“Daughter!” her mother in amazement cried.
“Alas! what brings you unattended back!
At thirteen, I recall, you learned to weave;
At fourteen you could embroider, sew;
At fifteen, music on the lute you made;
At sixteen knew the classics, prose and verse.
And then at seventeen, a lovely bride…
How proud I was to see you prosper so!
Yet, dear, you must have erred in deed or word.
Tell me the cause of your return alone.”
Said Lanzhi, “Truly I am brought full low,
Yet in my duty did I never fail.”
The mother wept for pity at her tale.
Upon the tenth day after her return
There came one from the county magistrate,
A go-between, to woo her for his son,
A lad who had bare twenty summers seen,
Whose good looks put all other youths to shame,
Whose tongue was fluent and full eloquent.
Her mother, hoping against hope, said, “Child,
I pray you, if it pleases you, consent.”
To which, in tears again, Lanzhi replied:
“Dear mother, when I parted with Zhongqing
He said, ‘Be faithful!’ o’er and o’er again,
And we both vowed eternal constancy.
If I should break my word and fickle prove,
Remorse would haunt me till my dying day.
Can I then think to wed again? No, no!
I pray you tell the matchmaker so”
So to the go-between the mother said:
“O honored sir, a stubborn child is mine,
But lately sent back to her brother’s house.
A small official found her no good match —
How should she please the magistrate’s own heir?
Besides, she is in melancholy state:
Young gentlemen require a gayer mate.”
So the official go-between went off
And , ere reporting to the magistrate,
Found for the sprig another fitting maid,
Born of a nearby family of note;
And, haply meeting with the prefect’s scribe,
Learned that His Excellency’s son and heir,
A worthy, excellent and handsome youth,
Himself aspired to wed the fair Lanzhi.
So to the brother’s house they came once more,
This time as envoys from the prefect sent.
The flowery, official greeting o’er,
They told the special reason they had come.
The mother, torn this way and that, declared:
“My child has vowed she ne’er will wed again.
I fear I know no way to change her mind.”
But Lanzhi’s brother, ever worldly-wise,
Was never slow to seize a heaven-sent chance,
And to his sister spoke blunt words and harsh:
“See you not, girl, how much this profits you?
Your former husband held a petty post.
Now comes an offer from the prefect’s son:
A greater contrast would be hard to find.
Turn down this offer if you will, this prize,
But think not I shall find you daily rice!”
What must be, must be, then thought poor Lanzhi
“Brother,” she said, “what you have said is good.
I was a wife and now am none again;
I left you once and then came back again
To dwell beneath you hospitable roof.
Your will is such as cannot be gainsaid.
True, to Zhongqing I gave my plighted word,
Yet faint the hope of seeing him again!
Your counsel I must welcome as a boon:
Pray you ,arrange the ceremony soon.”
When he heard this, the official go-between
Agreed to everything the brother asked.
Then to the Prefect’s house they hurried back
To tell the happy outcome of their work.
It seemed so good a marriage for his son,
The Prefect thought, that full of sheer delight
He turned the pages of the almanac,
And therein found the most auspicious date
To be the thirtieth of that same month.
Whereon he summoned his subordinates:
“The thirtieth is a heaven-favored day,”
Said she, “and that is but three days away.
Have all in readiness to greet the bride.”
The household was abuzz from floor to roof
As was befitting for a noble match.
There were, to fetch the bride, gay gondolas
Fresh-painted with designs of lucky birds
And silken pennant fluttering o’er the deck.
There were gold carriages with jade inlay
And well-groomed horses of the finest breed
With saddles shining, harness all arrayed!
As for the presents, strings of cash they told
Three thousand, bolts of silk and brocade
Three hundred. And among those precious gifts
Were globe-fish brought from some far distant clime.
The welcoming cortege, five hundred strong,
Would gladden all eyes as it passed along.
