King Yoori. (17 B.C.)
Yoori’s queen was a Chinese lady from the kingdom of Han. She quarrelled with the secondary wife and finally left the court. Yoori followed and tried to persuade her to return with him. She refused and, broken-hearted, he turned homeward alone. In the course of his sorrowful journey he saw a pair of orioles on the branch of a tree.
In yellow sunlight on the golden road
I stand alone.
All, all are mine—rice fields and golden road,
All but the one thing I desire.
In a tree by the road two yellow birds are mating.
Why must they sing so gaily?