English中文
Telling My Heart: The Meaning of the Brows
清晨帘幕卷轻霜，
呵手试梅妆。
都缘自有离恨，
故画作远山长。
At dawn I roll up the curtains in the light frost; I breathe upon my hands and try the plum-blossom makeup. All because I carry this grief of parting, I paint my brows long, like the far-off hills.
思往事，
惜流芳，
易成伤。
拟歌先敛，
欲笑还颦，
最断人肠。
Thinking on the past, grieving over the fading bloom — how easily one is wounded. About to sing, I first compose my face; about to smile, I knit my brows instead: of all things, most heartbreaking.
Reading notes
梅妆 is plum-blossom-shaped forehead makeup; distant hills evoke long, slender brows. 都 in 都缘 is read dōu, and 还 in 还颦 is read hái.