Sandalwood Lips, Zhao Luanluan
Tuesday, 30 May 2023 07:38![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerA cup held at them barely moves her cherry lips—
A dainty cough, and there’s the scent of jasmine blooms.
I saw an unpainted mouth like Bai Juyi’s Fan Su:
A string of melon seeds, a pomegranate fragrance.
檀口
衔杯微动樱桃颗，
咳唾轻飘茉莉香。
曾见白家樊素口，
瓠犀颗颗缀榴芳。
“Sandalwood lips” describes ones that are bright red—possibly “crimson” would be a better translation. Fan Su was a courtesan in Tang poet Bai Juyi’s household, whom he celebrated in a famous poem. The melon seeds are, if it’s not clear, her teeth. Added in translation: l.3’s “like,” because the author lived over three centuries later.
(This one is a little more clumsy, rhyming with the synonyms 香 and 芳, both meaning fragrance—not to mention, which is it, jasmine or pomegranate.)
---L.
A dainty cough, and there’s the scent of jasmine blooms.
I saw an unpainted mouth like Bai Juyi’s Fan Su:
A string of melon seeds, a pomegranate fragrance.
檀口
衔杯微动樱桃颗，
咳唾轻飘茉莉香。
曾见白家樊素口，
瓠犀颗颗缀榴芳。
“Sandalwood lips” describes ones that are bright red—possibly “crimson” would be a better translation. Fan Su was a courtesan in Tang poet Bai Juyi’s household, whom he celebrated in a famous poem. The melon seeds are, if it’s not clear, her teeth. Added in translation: l.3’s “like,” because the author lived over three centuries later.
(This one is a little more clumsy, rhyming with the synonyms 香 and 芳, both meaning fragrance—not to mention, which is it, jasmine or pomegranate.)
---L.
no subject
Date: 31 May 2023 00:16 (UTC)no subject
Date: 31 May 2023 14:49 (UTC)