The Great Khan

I find reported only words profound and direct from the Mongol Leader. And I am inclined to repeat them.  This from Basil Bunting’s Collected Poems. He notes:

A presumably exact version of Jengiz Khan’s correspondence with Chang Chun exists in Bretschneider’s Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources… &etc

 

Jengiz to Chang Chun: China
is fat, but I am lean
eating soldier’s food,
lacking learning.
In seven years
I brought most of the world under one law.
The Lords of Cathay
hesitate and fall.
Amidst these disorders
I distrust my talents.
To cross a river
boats and rudders,
to keep the empire in order
poets and sages,
but I have not found nine for a cabinet,
not three.
I have fasted and washed. Come

Chang: I am old
not wise nor virtuous,
nor likely to be much use.
My appearance is parched, my body weak.
I set out at once.

And to Liu Chung Lu, Jengiz:
Get an escort and a good cart,
and the girls can be sent on
separately if he insists.