Poem While Descended into a Shaman, Shao Ye

(Shao) Ye read in his study more than 10 li outside the Wengyuan county seat. After his death, the people of the county sacrificed to his spirit and the shaman held onto his head-cloth as he danced, when suddenly someone calling himself Elder Shao descended (into him). The people of the county immediately said, “Elder Shao was known as a worker’s song singer, could you make the effort of composing us a poem?” Because of this the shaman spoke wildly, intending to bring suffering to their ears, forcing out thoughts not in the classic form—that is, completing four lines. The rhymed lyric was grim and bitter, and although not comparable to old writings, from within this rural elder came the clear sound of an ill person, until you become moved to tears and exclaim with sighs.

In the green hills below the mountains, a youth of few years:
My hopes failed at that time, and I left my hometown.
In melancholy I can’t bear to look back and hope—
Away from the creek I gaze afar at my former study.

降巫诗
作者：邵谒
〈谒读书堂，距翁源县十馀里。殁后，县民祀神，巫持帻自舞，忽自称邵先辈降。县民即曰：“邵先辈异时号工歌咏者，能强为我赋诗乎？”以为巫妄言，欲苦之耳。巫略不经思，即成二十八字，词韵凄苦，虽老笔不逮，乡老中晓声病者，至为感泣咨叹。〉
青山山下少年郎，
失意当时别故乡。
惆怅不堪回首望，
隔溪遥见旧书堂。

Shao Ye was born in Wengyuan (in Guangdong, in the deep south, where shamanistic practices historically were more prevalent than in the north), the son of a minor county-level official. Despite failing the imperial exams, he entered the Imperial Academy as a student in 866, eventually becoming a teaching assistant and scholar (several prose works were lost, though four other poems survive in CTP). The dates of both his retirement to his hometown and death are not recorded (or not in any chronicle that’s survived), but given he’s an Elder, putting this story as “around 900 or a little after” is reasonable. Still, not being given a date makes it stick out in this chapter.

TN: My rough meter reflects the so-called “not in the classic form.”

---L.