lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
[personal profile] lnhammer
Thousands of leagues the traveler’s come—
Boudoir at night, she’s not asleep—
Paired-eyebrows puts the lantern out:
No need to sit before the mirror.

玉台体 之十二
万里行人至,
深闺夜未眠。
双眉灯下扫,
不待镜台前。

(Skipping #11 because I already translated it.) And the lady’s lonely no more. A “paired-eyebrows” is a beautiful woman.

And that’s the set. I was disappointed that more than half were “lonely lady” poems, several of them rather slight, but there’s some wit, here and there, and only occasional actual eroticism. The one picked up for 3TP really was one of the most interesting. I think this means I need to translate some actual Jade Terrace poems. Or some poems by actual courtesans.

---L.

Date: 19 September 2022 16:44 (UTC)
sartorias: (Default)
From: [personal profile] sartorias
The hot ones probably didn't get included in lists? (But made up for it in being passed hand to hand, heh)

At last one of our ladies get company instead of floods of tears!

About

Warning: contents contain line-breaks.

As language practice, I like to translate poetry. My current project is Chinese, with practice focused on Tang Dynasty poetry. Previously this was classical Japanese, most recently working through the Kokinshu anthology (archived here). Suggestions, corrections, and questions always welcome.

There's also original pomes in the journal archives.

April 2025

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