Living

The Doctor's Prescription

by Anonymous Chinese nursery rhymes traditional (collected in Peking, 1890s)

Translated by Isaac Taylor Headland (1900) · From Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes (1900)

Living

A purse, a purse, for better or worse,
Indeed, would you know it, I've married a purse.
My wife's little daughter once fell very ill,
And we called for a doctor to give her a pill;
He wrote a prescription which now we will give her,
In which he has ordered a mosquito's liver,
And then in addition the heart of a flea,
And half pound of fly wings to make her some tea.

MLA

Anonymous Chinese nursery rhymes. “The Doctor's Prescription.” Translated by Isaac Taylor Headland. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-chinese-nursery/60/.

Chicago

Anonymous Chinese nursery rhymes. “The Doctor's Prescription.” Translated by Isaac Taylor Headland. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-chinese-nursery/60/.

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