Hujia Tu 10

Recording: 07.03 to 07.26 Da Hujia scroll title page <-- Scene 9 <-- --> Scene 11

Scene 10: Resenting the nomad skies (but finding love in the birth of a child) 怨胡天

From 18 Songs of a Nomad Flute, here illustrating the qin melody Da Hujia (Nomad Reed Pipe, Long Version)
Scroll painting and calligraphy by Bai Yunli based on a Song dynasty original; poem by Liu Shang translated by Robert Rorex and Wen Fong

How I am grieved by the indignities I have suffered, and revolted by rank smells;
How I despise the nomad land and hate the nomad sky!
When I became pregnant with a barbarian child, I wanted to kill myself,
Yet once I bore it, I found the love of mother and child.
His looks are strange, and his speech is different, yet my hate turns into love;
Deep inside, I feel the tug of my heartstring.
Morning and evening he is with me:
How can I not pity that which my womb has borne and my hand nurtured?

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