White Horse Neighing in the West Wind - Chapter 5
Translation by Jenxi Seow
That day the Tianling Bird sang for a while, then fluttered a few zhang1 away. Li Wenxiu crawled along the ground after it. She heard the rustle of its wings and caught sight of the tiny, pale-yellow bird pecking at the ground for food. It pecked a few mouthfuls, then flew a little farther on and found more to eat.
The Tianling Bird was eating happily when suddenly, with a sharp snap, something dark flew up out of the tall grass and covered the Tianling Bird.
Amid Li Wenxiu’s startled cry came a boy’s triumphant whoop. A Kazakh boy leapt out of the tall grass, calling out proudly, “Caught it, caught it!” He wrapped the Tianling Bird in his outer coat. The bird’s frightened cries came muffled and dull through the fabric.
Li Wenxiu was both shocked and angry. She cried, “What are you doing?”
The boy said, “I’m catching Tianling Birds. Do you want to catch one too?”
Li Wenxiu said, “Why catch it? Isn’t it better to let it sing happily?”
The boy laughed. “To play with.” He reached his right hand inside his coat, and when he drew it out again, he held the tiny pale-yellow bird in his grip. The Tianling Bird beat its wings without rest, but how could it fly free from the boy’s grasp?
Li Wenxiu said, “Let it go, can’t you see how pitiful it is?”
The boy said, “I scattered wheat all along the path to lure it over. Who told it to eat my wheat? Ha ha!”
Li Wenxiu went still. In all the world, this was the first time she understood the meaning of a “trap”. Someone knew the little bird would eat wheat, so they scattered wheat and led it down the road to death.2 She was too young to know that for thousands of years men had already been saying, “Men die for wealth, birds die for food”. She only sensed, dimly, something frightening about cunning, and how hard it is to resist a lure. But these were no more than the vaguest shadows in her mind, and she could not fathom the truths hidden within them.
The boy played with the Tianling Bird, making it cry out in pain. Li Wenxiu said, “Give the little bird to me, will you?”
The boy said, “Then what will you give me?”
Li Wenxiu reached into her clothes and felt around. She had nothing at all, and flushed with embarrassment. After a moment’s thought she said, “Tomorrow I’ll sew you a beautiful pouch3 for you to wear.”
The boy laughed. “I’m not falling for that. Tomorrow you’ll just deny it.”
Li Wenxiu’s face went red. “If I said I’d give it to you, I would give it to you. Why would I go back on my word?”
The boy shook his head. “I don’t believe you.” Then, in the moonlight, he saw a jade bracelet on Li Wenxiu’s left wrist, giving off a soft, crystalline glow. He said offhandedly, “Unless you give me that.”
The jade bracelet had been a gift from her mother. Apart from it, she had nothing left to remember her mother by. She was loath to part with it, but when she saw how pitiful the Tianling Bird looked, she pulled the bracelet from her wrist at last and said, “Take it!”
The boy had not expected her actually to agree. He took the bracelet and said, “You won’t ask for it back?”
Li Wenxiu said, “No!”
The boy said, “Good!” And he handed the Tianling Bird to her.
Li Wenxiu cradled the bird in her cupped hands. She could feel its soft body against her palms, and the swift, faint beating of its heart. With three fingers of her right hand she gently stroked the feathers on its back, then opened her palms and said, “Fly away! Be careful next time, and don’t let anyone catch you again.”
The Tianling Bird spread its wings and vanished into the grass. The boy stared, puzzled. “Why let it go? Didn’t you trade your jade bracelet for it?” He clutched the bracelet tightly, half afraid Li Wenxiu would demand it back.
Li Wenxiu said, “The Tianling Bird can fly, and it can sing, isn’t that what makes it happy?”
The boy tilted his head and studied her for a while. “Who are you?”
Li Wenxiu said, “My name is Li Wenxiu. What about you?”
The boy said, “I’m called Supu.” With that he leapt to his feet and let out a great shout at the top of his voice.
***
Supu was two years older than Li Wenxiu, and very tall for his age. Standing on the grassland, he looked quite fierce and manly.
Li Wenxiu said, “You’re very strong, aren’t you?”
Supu was delighted. The little girl’s casual words had struck the thing he was most proud of. He pulled a short dao from his belt and said, “Last month I cut a wolf with this dao. I nearly killed it, too, but it got away.”
Li Wenxiu was astonished and somewhat disbelieving. “You’re really that fierce?”
Supu grew even prouder. “Two wolves came to bite our sheep in the middle of the night. Father wasn’t home, so I took my dao and went out to drive them off. The big one saw the torch and ran, but I slashed the other one with a single blow.”
Li Wenxiu said, “You cut the smaller one?”
Supu was a little embarrassed, and nodded, but quickly added, “If the big one hadn’t run off, I’d have killed it with a single blow.” That was what he said, but in truth he had no real confidence. But Li Wenxiu believed him without question.
“Wolves that come to bite little sheep deserve to be killed. Next time you kill a wolf, come and let me see it, all right?”
Supu was overjoyed. He said proudly, “Of course! When I kill a wolf, I’ll skin it and give you the pelt.”
Li Wenxiu said, “Thank you. Then I’ll make Grandfather a wolf-skin cushion. His own one he already gave to me.”
Supu said, “No! The one I give you is for you to keep. Give Grandfather his old one back.”
Li Wenxiu nodded. “That works too.”
In the two small hearts, hopes not yet fulfilled seemed no different from facts already accomplished. They spoke of killing a wolf as though the fierce beast were already dead.
And so the two children became friends. The Kazakh boy’s rugged boldness and the Han girl’s gentle kindness found a natural harmony together.
***
A few days later, Li Wenxiu made a small pouch, filled it with malt sugar, and brought it to Supu as a gift. The boy was taken quite by surprise. He had traded a bird for a jade bracelet and already felt he had taken a great advantage. The Kazakhs’ native honesty made him think he ought to make it right, so he stayed awake an entire night, caught two Tianling Birds on the grassland, and brought them to Li Wenxiu the next day.
His generous gesture quite missed the point. It took a great deal of patient explanation before Li Wenxiu could make the boy understand: what she loved was to see the Tianling Birds fly free, not to catch them and make them suffer. So she released both of the little birds. Supu understood at last, but deep down he felt her kindness was rather foolish, strange and laughable.
***
Day by day the time passed. In Li Wenxiu’s dreams, her father and mother appeared less and less often, and the tear-stains on her pillow grew fewer. Her face held more smiles, and more songs passed her lips.
When she and Supu herded the sheep together, love songs would often drift across the grassland from young men and women in the distance, one voice answering another. Li Wenxiu found these tender, winding songs beautiful, and after hearing many of them, she could hum them without thinking. Of course, she did not yet understand their meaning, why should a man think of a woman so constantly? Why should a woman give her heart so wholly to a man? Why did the sound of a lover’s footsteps make the heart beat so wildly? Why did the thought of a graceful figure keep a person awake through the whole night? She only sang them out, clear and sweet, and those who heard her would say, “That little girl sings so well, isn’t she like a Tianling Bird upon the grassland?”
When the cold winter came, the Tianling Birds flew south to warmer places, but on the grassland Li Wenxiu’s songs still rang out:
Ah, dear shepherd boy,
Tell me, how old are you?
Walking alone in the desert at midnight,
Would you have me keep you company?
The song paused there, and those who heard it thought in their hearts: “Listening to so beautiful a song, who would not want you for company?”
Then the song began again:
Ah, dear one, don’t be angry,
Who is good, who is bad, hard to say just yet.
To turn the Gobi desert into a garden,
You need only a pair of good people gathered together.
Those who heard the song felt a flower bloom inside their hearts. Even the coldest, most barren heart was filled with warmth: “If a pair of good people are gathered together, the Gobi desert becomes a garden of its own, who would think of being angry? No matter what, I would never be angry with you, not in all my days!” Old men felt decades younger, and young people overflowed with joy. But Li Wenxiu, who sang the love song, did not understand its meaning.
The one who heard her sing most often was Supu. He did not understand the meaning of the grassland love songs either, until one day, when they met a fierce wolf on the snowy ground.