In the “Jade Terrace” Style #2, Quan Deyu

Lovely and graceful, sixteen—proper, tender, and bashful—
We meet by chance at sunset, south side of the street.
“I’d like to ask, when is auspicious?” but she’s not willing.
Deep in the scattered flowers, face the green pavilion.

玉台体 之二
婵娟二八正娇羞，
日暮相逢南陌头。
试问佳期不肯道，
落花深处指青楼。

An “auspicious time” can be for either a wedding or a tryst—both senses work here—and a “green pavilion” is a brothel (traditionally painted green) or the pleasure quarters in general. Another tricky bit: in the pronounless last line, who’s pointing/facing at the brothel—the girl, who’s a courtesan pointing out where she works, or the guy, who heads there for consolation after being shot down by a proper young miss? I went with the latter, but an ambiguous wording would be nice.

BTW, this and the rest of the set are all regulated quatrains, a form not yet developed when New Songs from the Jade Terrace was compiled. (Quatrains were around, but not with strict tone patterns.) Not sure what to make of that.

(Am I doing all 12 of these? You bet yer sweet patootie I am.)

---L.