Tchirek Song*
Tchirek River
Lies under the Dark Mountains:
Where the sky is like the sides of a tent
Stretched down over the Great Steppe.
The sky is gray, gray:
And the steppe wide, wide:
Over grass that the wind has battered low
Sheep and oxen roam.
* This song is actually a popular folk song from one of the Tartar tribes residing in northern China at the time. It was first translated into another Tartar language, and then brought into China by a Tartar from that tribe. The Chinese version conforms perfectly to the poetic tradition of China.