| 2 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 赠邻女 | Sent to a neighbour girl | |
羞日遮罗袖， 愁春懒起妆。 易求无价宝， 难得有心郎。 枕上潜垂泪， 花间暗断肠。 自能窥宋玉， 何必恨王昌？ |
The day’s shyness is covered with a silken sleeve; spring sadness makes it hard to rise and put my makeup on. It’s easy to come by a pearl without price; what’s hard is to find a lover with a heart. On the pillow, hidden teardrops; among the flowers, a broken heart— but still I can peep at Song Yu, so why regret Wang Chang?[1] |
[1]Song Yu (宋玉) was, after Qu Yuan, probably the most famous poet of the Warring States period. He once wrote about the daughter of his eastern neighbour, who peeped at him over the wall for three years; the expression 窥宋, "to peep at Song", thus refers to a girl stealing longing glances at a boy (or, in this case, a poet). Wang Chang occasionally appears in Tang poems as "the handsome young man who lives in the house to the east". Jan Walls paraphrases these lines in this manner: "Even the superficial and fleeting relationships with men of great talent and influence are better than the routine life I might have led as Mrs. So-and-so." I think that is a highly plausible reading.
