BRACERS Record Detail for 80396
To access the original letter, email the Ready Division.
The number "950" was written in pencil at the top of this two-line letter.
BR asks Elizabeth to pass on to Frank Russell 2 Chinese poems that he has copied below, "Captivity" and "Business Men".
There is a typed transcription of this letter, document .055309, record 80397.
Letter 76
BR TO ELIZABETH RUSSELL, 21 AUG. 1918
BRACERS 80396. ALS. McMaster
Previous Brixton letter, BRACERS 18687; next letter, BRACERS 19347
Edited by K. Blackwell, A. Bone, N. Griffin and S. Turcon
<Brixton Prison>1
21 Aug. ’18.
My dear Elizabeth
Will you give these 2 Chinese poems2 , a to Frank? Much love and thanks to both for endless kindnesses.
Yrs aff
B.R.
Captivity.3
I am a prisoner in the hands of the enemy
Enduring the shame of captivity.
My bones stick out and my strength is gone
Through not getting enough to eat.
My brother is a Mandarin
And his horses are fed on maize.
Why can’t he spare a little money
To send and ransom me? [Query: How much would Cave4
want?]
Anon, 1st century B.C.
Business Men.5
Business men boast of their skill and cunning
But in philosophy they are like little children.
Bragging to each other of successful depredationsb
They neglect to consider the ultimate fate of the body.
What should they know of the Master of Dark Truth
Who saw the wide world in a jade cup,
By illumined conception got clear of Heaven and Earth;
On the chariot of Mutation entered the Gate of Immutability?
By Chen Tzu-ang, A.D. 656–698.
- 1
[document] The letter was edited from the initialled, twice-folded original in BR’s hand. Letter 77 to Colette has a note “Sheet for Elizabeth elsewhere.” This is the text of that sheet.
- 2
2 Chinese poems The poems are found in Arthur Waley, A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (London: Constable, 1918).
- 3
Captivity. The poem was copied from Waley, p. 36, where the title is “The Other Side of the Valley”.
- 4
- 5
Business Men The poem was copied from Waley, p. 95.