The Nine-Eyed Wolf

[CRNDLSM]

Some background: I composed this poem (wanna-be sonnet) from the first four lines of a Chinese short story that I have translated.  The story is set among a logging brigade in a remote mountain forest of central China, probably in the 1950's (just to give you a sense of the setting).  The story's four opening lines are straightforward prose but have a different cadence from the rest of the story, reading like a bit of local lore with only some allegorical significance to the story.  I was somehow inspired to break out these four lines, flesh them out, and put them into verse.  If I am satisfied with the final product, I will use this verse as an epigrammatic opening to the short story (with the author's approval).  I would really love it if someone could scan the poem for me, commenting on the meter.  Is it close enough so that, with appropriate changes, it can be salvaged as iambic pentameter?  Where are the variations?  The mistakes?  What lines need work and how and why?  I am ready to revise.  Thank you!



In Copper Drum Canyon one man all before bow,
A renowned hunter named So-and-so Tsao. 
Nine-Eyed Wolf’s his sobriquet since so they say,
A prayer nary a prey has from him to get away. 
Eyes laid on Tsao no quarry is ever known to flee, 
Perplexed and adept in animalese, Tsao occasioned an inquiry.
Apprise me prey upon espying me, why not run away? 
To Tsao a vindication did the prey forthwith relay:  
“Distressed and last-ditch off and running were I to split,
I’d be bagged just the same and kick the bucket.
Much sooner I’d stay put and on the spot decease,
In my swift demise so salve a measure of peace. 
Your sights at me train freely, a bull’s eye I guarantee,
My corpse whole, sound is my soul King Yama for to see.”

I want to know if I'm on the right track, by highlighting the words I think your natural accents are landing on,  that's the easiest way to re arrange words to fit a meter, I think.