Song Of Lovely Women

Third day, third month festival,    and the air fresh with spring;beside Serpentine Lake in Chang'an,    many lovely women stroll.

Their appearance is elegant,    their thoughts lofty and refined,their complexions delicate,    figures in perfect proportion.

Their embroidered silk gowns    glisten with spring light;golden peacocks and beasts of silver    strut upon the fabric.

What is it that they wear    upon their heads?

Jeweled headbands with kingfisher feathers,    dangling to their hairlines.

And what is it that we see    upon their backs?

Pearl-studded overskirts    drawn tight at the waist.

Among them are kin of the Pepper-flower Chamber*      with its cloud-patterned curtains-the Duchesses of Guo and Qin,    honored with the names of nations!

A great roast of purple camel hump    rises from a green cauldron,and crystal plates gleam    with heaps of white-scaled fish.

But the rhinoceros horn chopsticks,*    long-sated, are slow to descend,and the belled knife-handles    dance vainly above the roast.

The flying steeds of the eunuchs    hardly stir the dust,as they bear in eight exotic dishes    from the Imperial Kitchens.