The following extract is made from Mr. Ball’s remarkable book, “Things Chinese.”
It is very extraordinary to find an Edgar Allan Poe in Chinese literature, B.C. 200. The Chinese prototype was an eminent statesman, Kia Yi by name, who was also “no mean poet.”A Chinese “Raven.”
The Fu-niao or Bird of Fate.
’Twas in the month of chill November,
As I can very well remember
In dismal, gloomy, crumbling halls,
Betwixt moss-covered, reeking walls,
An exiled poet lay–
On his bed of straw reclining,
Half despairing, half repining;
When athwart the window sill,
Flew in a bird of omen ill,
And seemed inclined to stay.
To my book of occult learning,
Suddenly I thought of turning,
All the mystery to know,
Of that shameless owl or crow,
That would not go away.
“Wherever such a bird shall enter,
’Tis sure some power above has sent her,
(So said the mystic book) to show
The human dweller forth must go,”–
But where it did not say.
Then anxiously the bird addressing,
And my ignorance confessing,
“Gentle bird, in mercy deign
The will of Fate to me explain,
Where is my future way?”
It raised it’s head as if ’twere seeking
To answer me by simply speaking,
Then folded up its sable wind,
Nor did it utter anything,
But breathed a “Well-a-day!”
More eloquent than any diction,
That simple sigh produced conviction,
Furnishing to me the key
Of the awful mystery
That on my spirit lay.
“Fortune’s wheel is ever turning,
To human eye there’s no discerning
Weal or woe in any state;
Wisdom is to bide your fate;”
This is what it seemed to say
By that simple “Well-a-day.”
Poe’s apparent obligation to early Chinese literature brings to mind another interesting parallel. Many persons have remarked the similarity between Poe’s tale of “The Cask of Amontillado” and Balzac’s story of “Le Grand Breteche” the motive being the same in each case–burying a living man in a tomb of masonry. But we wish somebody who is wise in dates would inform us whether Poe was indebted to Balzac for this incident, or Balzac to Poe. It seems to us that it is more likely that Poe read Balzac than that Balzac read Poe, whose fame has waxed since his death. But we should like to be assured by somebody who knows. Perhaps Mr. Stedman can tell, or Mr. Woodberry.
See: J. Dyer Ball, Things Chinese: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with China, London, S. Low, Marston and Company, limited [etc., etc.] 1900, page 460. Available via Google Books.
Apparently there is quite a long history of accusing Poe of plagiarism, particularly for The Raven. There looks to be an interesting overview of this topic (to my unqualified eyes) in Victorian Poetry, Volume 43, Number 2, but unfortunately it is behind a paywall.
The connection between Poe and Balzac, if anyone has mentioned it online, is obscured by all of the school curricula assigning both texts.
Mr. Stedman and Mr. Woodberry co-edited The Works of Edgar Allen Poe (in 10 volumes, 1895).
(Title added by me, as this was only one section of The Rambler, a group of miscellany at the beginning of the issue).