42 Pr e - q i n t i m e s
Having from birth this inward beauty, 紛吾既有此內美兮 (fēn wú jì yŏu cĭ nèi mĕi xi)
10 I added to it fair outward adornment: 又重之以脩能 (yòu chóng zhī yĭ xiū néng)
I dressed in selinea and shady angelica, 扈江離與辟芷兮 (hù jiāng lí yŭ pì zhĭ xi)
And twined autumn orchids to make a garland. 紉秋蘭以為佩 (rèn qiū lán yĭ wéi pèi)
Swiftly I sped as in fearful pursuit, 汩余若將不及兮 (gǔ yú ruò jiāng bù jí xi)
Afraid that time would race on and leave me behind. 恐年歲之不吾與 (kŏng nián suì zhī bù wú yŭ)
15 In the morning I gathered the angelica on the
mountains, 朝搴阰之木蘭兮 (zhāo qiān pí zhī mù lán xi)
In the evening I plucked the sedges of the islets. 夕攬洲之宿莽 (xī lăn zhōu zhī sù măng)
The days and months hurried on, never delaying, 日月忽其不淹兮 (rì yuè hū qí bù yān xi)
Springs and autumns sped by in endless alternation. 春與秋其代序 (chūn yŭ qiū qí dài xù)
I thought how the trees and flowers were fading and
falling, 惟草木之零落兮 (wéi căo mù zhī líng luò xi)
20 And feared that my Fairest’s beauty would fade too. 恐美人之遲暮 (kŏng mĕi rén zhī chí mù)
Gather the flower of youth and cast out the impure! 不撫壯而棄穢兮 (bù fŭ zhuàng ĕr qì huì xi)
Why will you not change the error of your ways? 何不改此度 (hé bù găi cĭ dù)
I have harnessed brave coursers for you to gallop
forth with, 乘騏驥以馳騁兮 (chéng qí jì yĭ chí chĕng xi)
Come, let me go before and show you the way! 來吾道夫先路 (lái wú dào fú xiān lù)
This section is crucial in setting the tone for the entire poem. By informing the
reader of his family background at the very start, the poet firmly establishes him-
self as the center of the poem. He is signaling to his audience that what follows
will be about him, a noble descendant from a glorious clan in the state of Chu. This
rhetorical gesture was unprecedented in Qu Yuan’s time (it later became common
practice). Most of the poems in the Shijing are anonymous. In the few pieces where
the author’s identity is indicated, none goes to such length to establish the poet
as the center. For this reason, Qu Yuan has been called China’s first poet.18 Note
that the first-person pronoun (zhen 朕, wu 吾, yu 余) is repeated six times in this
eight-line excerpt. Such frequent use of the first-person pronoun in a very limited
space is unusual in Chinese poetry, where the pronoun is often omitted. Qu Yuan
is taking great pains to draw his audience’s attention to himself.Having introduced his noble family background, Qu Yuan consolidates it in this
section with his own moral cultivation. This is described in the context of the quick
passage of time, the poignant sense of loss it causes the poet, and his inability to
use his moral quality to serve his wrongheaded king.
This section introduces several motifs that are elaborated throughout the poem.
The first, the most enduring trademark of the Chuci, is the trope or convention of
“fragrant plants and fair one” (xiangcao meiren). Qu Yuan makes it clear that the
selinea, autumn orchid, rare angelica, and other fragrant plants that he adorns
himself with are for the purpose of complementing an “inward beauty,” thus estab-
lishing their symbolic significance. In other words, beautiful plants are objective