Her jade-green alcove curtained thick with silk,
Her vermilion screen with its pattern of flowers,
Her eight-foot dragon-beard mat and her quilt brocaded in squares
Are ready now for nights that are neither warm nor cold.
Original Poem:
「已凉」
韩偓
碧阑干外绣帘垂，猩血屏风画折枝。
八尺龙须方锦褥，已凉天气未寒时。
Interpretation:
Han wo has many works of romance, and this is one of the very distinctive ones.
It is characterised by its ingenious conception and implicit meaning. The first three lines describe the environment of a woman’s apartment. The author’s line of sight goes from the appendage outside to the embroidered curtains at the door, then to the screen inside the room, and finally to the eight-foot bed covered with dragon grass mats and brocade bedding. From the structure of the apartment and the interior furnishings, it can be seen that the owner of this apartment is a young woman of noble status.
In addition to the layout of the apartment, there are also various colours, such as the green appendages, scarlet painting screen, colourful embroidery on the curtains, and the luster on the brocade bedding, which not only further confirmed the identity of the young woman, but also implicitly set off her life interests and living atmosphere.
The woman never shows her face, but from the verses, it can be seen that she is a person of noble status and rich in joie de vivre. Living in such an environment all day long, what kind of association will she have? Would she lament the passage of time, would she be preoccupied with her aging face, and would she feel sad about her solitary confinement while pursuing her joie de vivre? Green appendages, embroidered curtains, pictures on the screen, all this is beautiful, as her own youth, as the so-called “such as flowers and beautiful women, like water flowing years”. All of this is implied from a calm and objective description. The most affectionate is the last two sentences: “eight feet of dragon beard square brocade mattress, has been cool weather is not cold.” The tone is still so calm. The bed mattress is gorgeous, the season is also pleasant, everything is in line with the hero’s leisure and elegance, also suitable for the hero to sleep quietly, but the emotional despondency is difficult to dispel.
