WU ZAO
(洞仙歌：珊珊琐骨 [Dong Xian Ge: Shan Shan Suo Gu] – 吴藻 – English translation)
NOTE: Also known as For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin by Wu Tsao.
By your dainty collarbones you seem
A divine sight, upon the celestials caught.
Met with your smile, my speech thaws to nought.
Staidly we gather flowers, recline on saplings;
Your turquoise sleeves grow chilled; in the
Hollow valley, I see you in wistful thought.
The lamplight casts low over our shades
As we carouse, peruse poetry, chant all the
Idyllic lines from gut-wrenching beauty wrought.
Identical we are, – brow-painting talents both,
Though I alone am blithely crazed; yet I'll
Tolerate it, if it be what my darling sought.
Amid the haze, vapour rises over the springlike
Lake – wait while I hire ourselves a redwood
Boat, so that away I may go, and you be brought.