| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | A Song of Young Girls from Lo-yang | | By Witter Bynner and Kiang Kung-hu, trans. |
| | From “Poems by Wang Wei”
From the Chinese
THERE are girls from Lo-yang in that door across the street, | |
| Some of them fifteen and some a little older. | |
| While their master rides a rapid horse with jade bit and bridle, | |
| Their handmaid brings them codfish on a golden plate. | |
| On the painted pavilions, facing their red towers, | 5 |
| Cornices are pink and green with peach-bloom and with willow; | |
| Canopies of silk awn their seven-scented chairs; | |
| Rare fans shade them home, to their nine-flowered curtains. | |
| Their lord, with rank and wealth and in the green of life, | |
| Exceeds, for magnificence, even Chi-lun; | 10 |
| He favors girls of lowly birth and teaches them to dance, | |
| And he gives away his coral-trees to almost anyone. | |
| The wind of dawn just stirs when his nine soft lights go out, | |
| Those nine soft lights like petals in a flying chain of flowers. | |
| From play to play they have barely time for singing over the songs; | 15 |
| No sooner are they dressed again than incense burns before them. | |
| Those they know in town are only the rich and the lavish, | |
| And day and night they’re visiting the homes of Chao and Li…. | |
| Who cares about a girl from Yueh, face jade-white, | |
| Humble, poor, alone, by the river, washing silk! | 20 | | | |
|
|
