The Leiothrix
The Leiothrix（Xiang Si Niao in Chinese）is a narrative poem,telling a folk love story of Tujia ethnic minority,translated into Chinese and collected by Xia Tian.
It is a love story between a young scholar,Yilin and the daughter of a castellan,Nixiang.Yilin came first in the highest imperial examination before he went back to his hometown to meet his lover,Nixiang.With this purpose in mind,he committed himself to being a servant at the castellan’s palace.The castellan found Yilin was a talented person and appointed him as the tutor of Nixiang.Yilin and Nixiang finally met.They both expressed their love for each other.However,their good times did not last long.A playboy forced Nixiang to marry him.Yilin,after hearing the news,proposed letting a servant girl replace Nixiang as the playboy’s bride and Nixiang get married with him.Nevertheless,their plan was exposed.On their way home,Nixiang was grabbed by the playboy and Yilin,being inconsolable,rode anxiously and quickly to chase after Nixiang and at last,he turned into a Leiothrix in the sky.
The story is a wonderful love tragedy which gives expression to people’s loyalty towards love and their yearning for good life.
Here is a selection from the poem.
Wild geese fly line by line in the sky.
Plum blossoms bloom one by one on the cliff.
It’s time for Yilin to leave.
It’s time to return home.(https://www.daowen.com)
The castellan went to the study again.
Here good words endlessly come.
“May your wooden stairs have the splendor of spring!
May you be young forever like a green pine!”
“Next year when flowers are in bud,
Wish you the singer in our song fest,
Singing a song about the beauty of spring,
With a sexy and graceful posture in sight.”