The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry - 71. Three Shades of Jade

.

for The Kept-Woman Ch’ing Lin

On your lissome body

Bright jade and coral waistband

bangles chime

As those of a celestial companion

Come from the Green Stone City of

Heaven.

One smile from you when we meet

And I lose the power of speech,

forgetting every word.

For too long you have gathered flowers

And leaned against the bamboo,

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 verse.

You sing “Remembering South of the River”

With its heart-breaking refrain. Then,

We each adorn the eyebrows of the other.

I want to possess you completely,

your nephrite body,

And your called-for heart.

It is Spring. Endless mists

cover the Five Lakes.

Sweetheart, let me buy a red

painted boat

And carry you away.

—Wu Tsao, [i]

circa 1805

[translator unknown]