lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
lnhammer ([personal profile] lnhammer) wrote2022-09-06 08:03 am

In the “Jade Terrace” Style #5, Quan Deyu

Upstairs, the playing flute trails off.
In the boudoir, embroidery ceases.
Our auspicious time—it cannot come.
At sunset, tears are trickling down.

玉台体 之五
楼上吹箫罢,
闺中刺绣阑。
佳期不可见,
尽日泪潺潺。

Again, an “auspicious time” can be a wedding day or a tryst—making this either a jilted young miss or an abandoned mistress, you get to decide. This is the first of several “lonely lady” poems in this set, which as a genre I’m generally not thrilled with, in part because there’s so many of them—both in general as well as here. (I was hoping for more on the semi-erotic side of things, like the first poem.)

---L.
sartorias: (Default)

[personal profile] sartorias 2022-09-07 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
The first two lines are promising, but sadly then we just get generic.