Last night my girdle came undone, And this morning a luck-beetle flew over my bed. So here are my paints and here are my powders - And a welcome for my yoke again.
Original Poem:
「玉台体」
权德舆
昨夜裙带解，今朝蟢子飞。
铅华不可弃，莫是藁砧归。
Interpretation:
Ancient Chinese women’s clothing, there is a knot waist tie skirt belt, made of silk, or silk strands, or embroidered tapestries. This belt, not pay attention, sometimes it is inevitable to knot loose.
But since ancient times, this kind of momentary slack belt, is considered to be a couple of good omen, of course, the sentimental heroine immediately this accidental phenomenon and their own husband’s feelings associated. She began to think very uneasily whether her husband was coming back. And the next morning, another auspicious sign appeared: the morning sun at the window, is to see the roof of the mosquitoes on the happy spider flying around.
Can it be a coincidence that these auspicious signs appear one after another? The delighted heroine then secretly instructed herself: I still have to make up and dress up, to meet her husband’s return.
Quan Deyu (权德舆) was a native of Tianshui, Gansu, 759-818 AD. At the age of four, he was able to write poems, and at the age of fifteen, he became famous and famous, and he did not stop writing books in his old age. His poems were mostly composed in response to the system of honoraria, but they were elegant and natural.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
