English Rendering
I saw an excellent picture drawn by Zhou Fan of a yawning lady singer viewed from the back,and I wrote this poem in joke as a companion poem of Du Fu's.
In the lonely deep palace the spring days were long.
North of the Fragrance Pavilion flowers smelt sweet.
The lightly-dressed fair lady got up at the song
Of orioles,her heart broke to see swallows fleet.
The painter tried to retain her infinite charm
And paint'd her back when,awake,she stood in the east wind.
If she turned her head with a smile,she would disarm
A besieging army,however disciplined.
The hungry poet Du Fu with a longing eye,
In shabby hat and on lame ass,followed a horse.
Sometime across the flowery stream he passed by,
He saw but from the back her slender waist and torse.
Fascinated,he came back to his thatched cot,
And then believed on earth there was a lady fair.
Don't you know man and wife were happy with their lot?
Why should she turn her back and weep with a love-sick air?
