Spring Palace Grief
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
欲妆临镜慵。
承恩不在貌，
教妾若为容。
风暖鸟声碎，
日高花影重。
年年越溪女，
相忆采芙蓉。
English translation
Long ago my beauty led me astray, about to make up, I am listless before the mirror.
Favor does not rest on looks, then how should I adorn myself?
The wind is warm, the birds' cries fall in fragments, the sun is high, the blossoms' shadows lie thick.
Year after year the girls of Yue Stream remember together the gathering of lotus.
Meaning
In early years I was undone by my beauty and fell into the palace; I meant to dress and paint my face, but at the thought that beauty is a woman's ruin I hesitated and grew too listless to lift a hand. Favor does not really depend on a pretty face — for whose sake, after all, should I adorn myself? The birds sing in broken notes because there is warm spring air; only under the bright noon sun do the flower shadows fall in layer upon layer. I truly long for the girls who bleached silk by the Yue stream year after year, singing and laughing, freely gathering lotus flowers.