About the year 110 B.C. a Chinese
Princess named Hsi-chün was sent, for political reasons,
to be the wife of a central Asian nomad king, K'un Mo, king of
the Wu-sun. When she got there, she found her husband old and
decrepit. He only saw her once or twice a year, when they drank
a cup of wine together. They could not converse, as they had
no language in common. This English translation of "Lament
of Hsi-chün" by Arthur Waley is reprinted from One
Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems. Trans. Arthur Waley. London:
Constable and Co. Ltd, 1918.
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