花肥叶大两三枝， 香浮白玉巵。 轻罗团扇写冰姿， 何劳腻粉施。
新雨后， 好风吹， 闲阶月上时。 碧天如水影迟迟， 清芬晚更宜。
Zui Taoyuan: Inscribed on a Fan with
Ink-Sketched Gardenias, Sent to Yunjiang1 Gu
Taiqing
Blossoms
plump, leaves big: two or three boughs. Perfume
drifts from a jade-white cup.2 A
light, gauzy round fan limns icy raiments. Why
bother to put on powder and paint? After
fresh rains, A
fine breeze blows. Idle
stairs in the hour of moonrise. Cobalt
sky like water, shadows slowly furl. Pure
scent, even better in the dark.
1.
Yunjiang was Gu’s closest friend. 2.
Jade-white cup (yuzhi) describes the
gardenia, names a flower nymph, and puns on “jade-white limbs” (yuzhi).
（David McCraw 译） |
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