Presented at Parting #1, Du Mu (Tang Shi #295)

[lnhammer]

Graceful and slender, more than thirteen,
A cardamom tip in the early spring.
Ten li of spring breezes on Yangzhou Road:
Roll up each bead curtain—they’ll all be inferior.

赠别之一
娉娉袅袅十三余，
豆蔻梢头二月初。
春风十里扬州路，
卷上珠帘总不如。

First of two poems. At the start of the second lunar month (the literal time given) in the Yangzi delta, cardamom is budding and about to bloom—and indeed, cardamom bud is an idiom for a budding beauty. The spring breezes refers, as you might expect from Du Mu, to the pleasure district. There is some confusion over whether to understand “more than thirteen” as just thirteen, almost fourteen, or at least fourteen. Either way, though, he’s being gallant with a girl not yet of age (that age being 15 in his time).

—L.

Comments

[lnhammer]

And by “being gallant with” I mean “macking on.”

[sovay]

Roll up each bead curtain—they’ll all be inferior.

What is the significance of the curtain? The windows of the houses the narrator will pass on his travels, none containing a prettier girl than the one he's leaving this poem with?

[lnhammer]

Close -- the windows of the courtesans of the three miles of road that is pleasure quarters, none of whom are as pretty as her. *makes note to expand endnote*

[sovay]

the windows of the courtesans of the three miles of road that is pleasure quarters, none of whom are as pretty as her.

Thanks!