The Ballad of Mulan
Anonymous (5th-6th century A.D.)
Mulan (old pronunication Muklan) was a member of the Sarbi (Hsien-pei) people. This celebrated ballad tells of her resolve to take her father’s place in fending off the encroaching Jou-jan nomads. She is often compared with Joan of Arc, although the two do not share much more in common than the fact that they were both women warriors. The people and places in the ballad are all from the far northern borderlands of China, and it is likely that this remarkable work was first conceived in one of the languages of that land of nomads.
Click, click, forever click, click;
Mulan sits at the door and weaves.
Listen, and you will not hear the shuttle’s sound,
But only hear a girl’s sobs and sighs.
“Oh tell me, lady, are you thinking of your love?
Oh tell me, lady, are thinking of your dear?”
“Oh no, oh no, I am not thinking of my love,
Oh no, oh no, I am not thinking of my dear.
But last night I read the battle-roll;
The Khan has ordered a great levy of men.
The battle-roll was written in twelve books,
And in each book stood my father’s name.
My father’s sons are not grown men,
And of all of my brothers, none is older than me.
Oh let me to the market to buy saddle and horse,
And ride with the soldiers to take my father’s place.”
In the eastern market she’s bought a gallant horse,
In the western market she’s bought saddle and cloth.
In the southern market she’s bought snaffle and reins,
In the northern market she’s bought a tall whip.
In the morning she stole from her father’s and mother’s house;
At night she was camping by the Yellow River’s side.
She could not hear her father and mother calling to her by name,
But only the song of the Yellow River as its hurrying waters hissed and
swirled through the night.
At dawn they left the River and went on their way;
At dusk they came to the Black Water’s side.
She could not hear her father and mother calling to her by name,
She could only hear the muffled voices of Scythian horsemen riding on
the hillls of Yen.
A thousand leagues she tramped on the errands of war,
Frontiers and hills she crossed like a bird in flight.
Through the northern air echoed the watchman’s tap;
The wintry light gleamed on coats of mail.
The captain had fought a hundred fights, and died;
The warriors in ten years had won their rest.
They went home, they saw the Emperor’s face;
The Son of Heaven was seated in the Hall of Light.
To the strong in battle lordships and land he gave;
And of prize money a hundred thousand strings.
Then spoke the Khan and asked her what she would take.
“Oh, Mulan asks not to be made
A Counsellor at the King’s court;
She only asks for a camel that can march
A thousand leagues a day,
To take her back to her home.”
When her father and mother heard that she had come,
They went out to the wall and led her back to the house.
When her little sister heard that she had come,
She went to the door and rouged her face afresh.
When her little brother heard that his sister had come,
He sharpened his knife and darted like a flash
Toward the pigs and sheep.
She opened the gate that leads to the eastern tower,
She sat on her bed that stood in the western tower.
She cast aside her heavy soldier’s cloak,
And wore again her old-time dress.
She stood at the window and bound her cloudy hair;
She went to the mirror and fastened her yellow combs.
She left her house and met her messmates in the road;
Her messmates were startled out of their wits.
They had marched with her for twelve years of war
And never known that Mulan was a girl.
For the male hare has a lilting lolloping gait,
And the female hare has a wild and roving eye;
But set them both scampering side by side,
And who so wise could tell you, “This is he”?
of cash
Translated by Arthur Waley
in the Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature
©1994 Columbia University Press
