Poem of Shameful Decline, A Ghost on a River-Bank

[lnhammer]

In 718, a person mooring his boat by a river-bank saw dried-up bones on the shore, and as he started to eat next to them, suddenly he heard from the air, “Shameful decline,” and then was presented with this poem.

I started as a gentleman of Handan.
As just a servant, I died on this river-bank.
I cannot have a household weep for me:
I’ll trouble you to travel on in sorrow.

愧谢诗
作者：河湄鬼
〈开元六年，有人泊舟于河湄者，见岸边枯骨，因投食而与之，俄闻空中愧谢，并赠此诗。〉
我本邯郸士，
祇役死河湄。
不得家人哭，
劳君行路悲。

Another right proper ghost poem. Handan is now in southern Hebei.

—L.

Comments

[sartorias]

Short, tight, elusive.

[lnhammer]

And resonant.

[the_future_modernes]

Yikes. I can see why the ghost was mourning.

[lnhammer]

The dead need their proper rites.