Red lips lightly rouged

Red lips lightly rouged

Lonesome in my deepest boudoir
my tender heart entangled
in ten thousand sadnesses.

I love the spring but spring has gone.
Rain hurries petals to the ground.

To and fro at the balustrade
I’m restless, moody.
Where is he?

The rushes stretch to an endless sky.
I look in vain for his coming home.


Li Qingzhao 1084-c.1151
- translated by Jill Jones