Another Drunken Imperial Concubine Version

This came about from the first line as I was practising my brush writing. Compare to this one that I had written nine years ago. 

http://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2010/04/drunken-imperial-concubine.html

1 玉階彩霞獨自情 On the jade steps, colored clouds in passion of one, 

2袖飛珮爭婆娑輕 Pendants vying with flying sleeves in light swirls, 

3月醉羞花待君郎 Inebriated is the moon and flowers abashed; waiting for her Lord, 

4蕙宮夜長伴梅精 Alas, night long in the Palace of Dipteryx, he dallied with that Plum Blossom Witch! 

Notes: 

3 From 沉魚落雁敝月羞花 (sinking fish, plummeting swan; eclipsing the moon, shaming the blossoms), to describe the four greatest beauties of China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Beauties Hsi Shih: a silk washer girl by the riverbanks before she was discovered. Wang Chao-chun: sent to the Hsiung Nu as a bride. Actually 雁 is a kind of migrating wild goose but its English imagery is not so elegant as in Chinese. Tiao Chan: She was seen by her foster father when she offered night prayers moon when suddenly a cloud obscured the moon. He took it as an omen and exclaimed that even the radiant moon is ashamed and needed to be hidden from her beauty. Yang Kwei Fei: She was seen by a palace maid when she touched a mimosa and so the story spread about the flowers were ashamed of their beauty before her. 

4 Actually Dipteryx Odorata, a kind of fragrant grass. The “witch” refers to a former rival of Yang Kwei Fei. Her passion is plum blossoms and hence as entitled as the Plum Blossom Concubine. 貴妃醉酒 is a Peking Opera based on the story that after having a spat with her, the Emperor summoned her rival to his chambers. She became tipsy while waiting for his summons. When she found out what was happening, she brazenly went to confront him. The emperor felt so guilty that he hid her rival under his quilt. However, she did not expose him and left; feigning that he needed his rest. From then onwards, she knew she had the sole power over the emperor. 

Monday, July 01, 2019