For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin

On Your Slender Body Your Jade and Coral Girdle Ornaments Chime Like Those of a Celestial Companion Come From the Green Jade City of Heaven.

One Smile From You When We Meet, and I Become Speechless and Forget Every Word.

For Too Long You Have Gathered Flowers, and Leaned Against the Bamboos, Your Green Sleeves Growing Cold, in Your Deserted Valley: I Can Visualize You All Alone, a Girl Harboring Her Cryptic Thoughts.

You Glow Like a Perfumed Lamp in the Gathering Shadows. We Play Wine Games and Recite Each Other’s Poems.

Then You Sing, “Remembering South of the River” With Its Heartbreaking Verses. Then We Paint Each Other’s Beautiful Eyebrows.

I Want to Possess You Completely– Your Jade Body and Your Promised Heart. It Is Spring. Vast Mists Cover the Five Lakes. My Dear, Let Me Buy a Red Painted Boat and Carry You Away.