LADY MIDNIGHT SONGS OF THE FOUR SEASONS

(c. 4th century C.E.)

 

LADY MIDNIGHT SONGS OF THE FOUR SEASONS

1 Spring

Tunic gathered loose and sash untied,

I put on eyebrows and go to a window.

A gauze skirt’s grace is light and airy:

if it slips open, blame a spring breeze.

 

2

Radiant winds pour through moonrise.

Forests unfurl a brocade of blossoms.

Under a spring moon, we play at love,

trailing gauze sleeves deep in shadow.

 

3

Spring forests so seductive in bloom,

spring birds such grief, and spring

winds bring all that and yes, much

more breezing my gauze robes open.

 

4

Tempted by blossoms, a spring moon,

I wander streets and lanes, and smile.

So many I meet ache to get me naked.

Too bad they don’t think they should.

 

5 Summer

How many nights since I put up my hair?

Long and silky, it spills over my shoulders

and sprawls beautifully across his knees.

There’s nowhere its sympathies won’t go.

 

6

Thinking of that wild thirst of love,

head over heels, nothing left undone,

I let blinds down again. Who knows

our abandon through thick and thin?

 

7

Up this high, a bedroom needs no walls.

It welcomes winds from every direction,

tender breezes slipping my gauze robe

wide open, teasing my lips into a smile.

 

8

Joy fades by early spring. And my sorrow

grows colder still with autumn and winter.

But playing at love these warm and moonlit

summer nights, we tangle so well together.

 

9

The day’s warm, and quiet. Not a breeze.

Summer clouds build. Dusk thins. Here,

under thick leaves, hands lead hands to

a drifting gourd sunk into scarlet plum.

 

10 Autumn

I can’t sleep. The night’s long and

the bright moon so radiant, radiant.

Thinking I hear his scattered voice,

I call back, answering empty skies.

 

11

Autumn’s chill infuses crystalline wind.

A moon drifts heaven’s exquisite depths,

radiant. Lovely women ready winter robes,

ten thousand sticks beating frozen stone.

 

12

Crystalline dew freezes jade-pure.

Past midnight, an icy wind rises.

Why go home to bed? All love and

allure, I wander radiant moonlight.

 

13

Wild geese set out for their southlands,

and city-bred swallows wing northward.

If you’ve lost your way, my far-off love,

just follow the autumn wind back home.

 

14

Beginnings of spring come to mind,

and I realize autumn’s already over.

Chasing after the very heart of joy,

I missed the year’s splendor passing.

 

15

Autumn’s cold, the window wide open.

A tilted moon fills the room with light.

It’s midnight, and nothing need be said:

just two smiles behind a gauze curtain.

 

16

Autumn night at the open window

makes bed-curtains float and sway.

I gaze up at the bright moon, send

such love a thousand radiant miles.

 

17

You left in early spring, and I long

to have you back by autumn’s end.

How I hate this river flowing east:

all year, never a care for the west.

 

18 Winter

It’s year’s end. Skies are ice-cold.

North wind dances snow into flight.

My dream love’s here beneath quilts,

and the heat of a long hot summer.

 

19

North wind scattering sleet and rain,

ice on the green lake’s lotus shallows:

it’s time radiant hands played clear

through a game of first-snow falling.

 

20

Where could such kindred hearts join?

On the west ridge, beneath that cypress,

sheltered by four walls of dazzling light.

There, bitter frost will kill us with cold.

 

21

White snow drifts along yin ridgelines.

Cinnabar blossoms blaze in yang forests.

Who needs flute and string? Sounds of

rivers and mountains sing so clear here.

 

22

Still longing for deep gold-orchid love?

Take a look at forests of pine and cypress,

killing frosts caught up in the treetops.

No other heart in all this year-end cold.