Returning from gathering lotus
Green water, lotus garments.
Autumn wind raises waves, ducks and geese fly
Cassia oars, orchid paddles, down the long inlet.
Silken skirt, jade wrists, lightly sway the oar
Leaf islets, flower pools, gaze reaches the level distance.
River songs, Yue pipes, the bitterness of longing
The bitterness of longing
Happy times cannot linger.
The warrior beyond the frontier has not yet returned
In Jiangnan, lotus gathering now ends at dusk.
Now ends at dusk
Gathering lotus flowers
Must those girls all be courtesans now?
On the official road south of town, picking mulberry leaves
How does it compare to gathering lotus on the river?
Lotus flowers upon lotus flowers
How dense and layered the blooms and leaves!
Leaf's green would shame eyebrows
Flower's red rivals cheeks.
My beloved is not here
Melancholy, I gaze back to our parting time.
Pulling flowers, I cherish shared stems
Breaking lotus root, I love the connecting threads.
Old feelings have no place to rest
New things follow lush growth.
I do not regret exchanging pendants at West Ford
But still blush that letters from the North Sea are late.
The lotus-gathering song has rhythm
Lotus gathering at night does not cease.
Just meeting the vast river wind
And encountering the lingering river moon.
Lingering at the lotus inlet, meeting at night
Wu maids, Yue girls, how luxuriant!
Together they ask, beyond the cold river a thousand miles away
How many passes and mountains lie before the traveling warrior?