LOVE-LETTERS OF A CHINESE WIFE.

Western Star, 30 March 1920, Page 4

LOVE-LETTERS OF A CHINESE WIFE.

“WHEN FIRST THOU RAISED MY VEIL.” ROUGE BRUSH AND TEARS. Western ideas of the Chinese woman as passionless will be modified on reading the love letters of Kwei-li. She was the daughter of a Viceroy of Chih-li, and the letters full of poetic fancy and witnessing her great love, were written to her husband , when he accompanied! his master Prince Chung, on his trip round the world. They are now, published in a book, “ The Love Letters of al Chinese Lady,” by Elizabeth Cooper. Kwei-li “sends with each stroke of her brush (the Chinese write with a brush) a part of her heart.” These are extracts frotait the first letters after the departure of her husband. “My Dear Cue, —The house on the mountain-top has lost its soul. It is nothing but a palace with empty windows. Igo upon the terrace and look over the valley where the sun sinks a golden-red ball, casting long purple shadows on the plain. Then I remember that thon are not coming from the city to me, and I say to myself that there con, be no* dawn that I care to see, and no sunset to gladden Iny eyes, unless I share it with thee. “ Dost thou remember when first thou raised my veil and looked into my eyes ? I was thinking, ‘ Will he : find me beautiful? ’ and in fear I | could look but for a moment, then | my eyes fell, and I would not raise l them to thine again. But in that moment I saw that thou were tall and beautiful, that thine eyes were truly almond, that thy skin was clear, and thy teeth like pearls. I was secretly glad within my heart, because I have known of brides who, when they saw their husbands for the first time, wished to scream in terror, as they were old and ngly I long for thee. I love thee. I am tliine. Thy wife.” —“'The Word For Trouble.”—• “My Dear One, —Life is serious hero in' thine ancestral home since we have taken to ourselves a daughter-in-law. The written word for trouble ‘ is two women beneath one roof, and I greatly fear that the wise man who invented) writing had knowledge that cost biro dear. Perhaps he too had a daughter-in-law.” This daughter-in-law is one Li-ti. “Her hair is wonderful (but I say within my heart not so long or thick as mine), and she adorns it with many jewels of jade and pearls. ... I watch her with a. little envy, because when thou wa-st here- I did the same. Now that my husband is away it is not meet that I make myself too seemly for other eyes. The rouge brush and the powder have not been near my face, and I have searched my clothing chests to find gowns fitting for a woman who is alone.” Another letter reveals that the joys and excitements of shopping are the same for women in all lands: “All thy womenfolk have been shopping. ... We bought silks and satins and gay brocades, and returned home three happy, tired, hungry women, thinking with longing of the -hissing tea urn upon the cbar- , coal brazier.—l am thy happy, tired wife. . . . —Woman’s Destiny.— • A son is born. “I am indeed a - woman, fulfilling a woman’s destiny. . . . My golden world is peopled with but three —thou, him, and me. . . . Oh, husband, mine, come " back and see thy son! . . . Thou f hast a new place in my heart. The ’ tie that binds our heart together is . stronger than a rope of twisted bam- . boo, ft is a bond, a love bond, t'lila’t never can be severed. I am tbh ' mother of thy first-born—then hast gjvcn me my man-child. Love thee—- ! love thee! Now I know!”

But the boy dies, an tithe stricken wife writes: “I am alone on the mountain top. . . . My son, my man-child, is dead. The life has gone from his body, the: breath from his lips. I have held him all the night close to my heart, and it does not give him; warmth. They have taken him from me, and told me lie has gone to the Gods. There are no Gods, There are no Gods. lam alon©.” Says the author of the book: “I knew her many years afterwards—her husband having been appointed Governor of Kiangsu—when she was the happy mother of many sons and daughters. She was a Messing: to: our province in many ways.”