Spring Feelings, Li Bai (Tang Shi #7)

Yan grasses are like threads of jade,
Qin mulberries bend their branches green—
My lord now thinks of his day of return,
A time of heartbreak for this one.
Spring breeze, we do not know each other
So why blow into my gauze curtains?

春思
燕草如碧丝，
秦桑低绿枝；
当君怀归日，
是妾断肠时。
春风不相识，
何事入罗帏？

I wanted something short to prime my well—there’s a few more six-line poems left in case I need more. Yan is the frontier north and east of modern Beijing and Qin is the capital region of modern Shaanxi. The speaker uses a humble female first-person pronoun, and as much of the time where there’s any remotely erotic context, the operative connotation of spring is wanton.

---L.