384 a s y n tHe sis
Springs and autumns sped by in endless alternation.
I thought how the trees and flowers were fading and falling,
20 And feared that my Fairest’s beauty would fade too.
[CCBZ, 3–47]splendidly I since have this inner beauty xi 紛吾既有此內美兮
(fēn wú jì yŏu cĭ nèi mĕi xi)
moreover add to it yi (to) refine appearance 又重之以脩能
(yòu zhòng zhī yĭ xiū néng)
dress river selinea yu (and) shady angelica xi 扈江離與辟芷兮
(hù jiāng lí yŭ pì zhĭ xi)
twine autumn orchids yi (to) make garland 紉秋蘭以為佩
(rèn qiū lán yĭ wéi pèi)
swiftly I as will not reach xi 汩余若將不及兮
(mì yú ruò jiāng bù jí xi)
fear year — zhi (of ) not me give 恐年歲之不吾與
(kŏng nián suì zhī bù wú yŭ)
morning gather mountain zhi (of ) wood orchid xi 朝搴阰之木蘭兮
(zhāo qiān pí zhī mù lán xi)
evening pluck islets zhi (of ) sedges — 夕攬洲之宿莽
(xī lăn zhōu zhī sù măng)
days months hurried qi never delaying xi 日月忽其不淹兮
(rì yuè hū qí bù yān xi)
spring and autumn qi alternate order 春與秋其代序
(chūn yŭ qiū qí dài xù)
think grass trees zhi (of ) fade fall xi 惟草木之零落兮
(wéi căo mù zhī líng luò xi)
fear fair beauty zhi (of ) late dusk 恐美人之遲暮
(kŏng mĕi rén zhī chí mù)
As shown in the word-for-word translation, the pause indicator xi has yielded
the middle position to a connective—yi (to, in order to), yu (and), zhi (of ), qi (a
word linking subject and predicate), yu (in), and so on. This creates a new rhythm,
3 + 1 + 2, and makes the lines genuinely hexasyllabic. This new rhythm is slower
and less powerful than that of early Chuci works and seems to reflect a shift from
shamanistic performance to a narrative-descriptive presentation.
The substitution of syntactic connectives for xi brings about a dramatic change
of syntax. As noted earlier, xi produces a long pause and effectively breaks a line
into two distinct parts (a trisyllabic topic and a disyllabic comment). By contrast,
these syntactic connectives combine the trisyllabic and disyllabic segments into
one uninterrupted line. If a xi-separated line is by default a topic + comment con-
struction, such a connective-linked line is almost invariably a subject + predicate
construction. A notable exception is where an extended noun phrase takes up an
entire line (line 1).