Ballad of a Luoyang Girl
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
才可颜容十五余。
良人玉勒乘骢马，
侍女金盘脍鲤鱼。
画阁朱楼尽相望，
红桃绿柳垂檐向。
罗帷送上七香车，
宝扇迎归九华帐。
狂夫富贵在青春，
意气骄奢剧季伦。
自怜碧玉亲教舞，
不惜珊瑚持与人。
春窗曙灭九微火，
九微片片飞花琐。
戏罢曾无理曲时，
妆成祗是熏香坐。
城中相识尽繁华，
日夜经过赵李家。
谁怜越女颜如玉，
贫贱江头自浣纱。
English translation
A girl of Luoyang lives across the way; her looks are a little past fifteen.
Her goodman, with jade bit, rides a gray-white horse; her maid, with golden plate, serves minced carp.
Painted galleries and red towers all face one another; red peach and green willow droop toward the eaves.
Silk curtains see her off in the seven-spice carriage; jeweled fans welcome her home to the nine-flower canopy.
Her lord, rich and noble in his youth, in pride and extravagance outdoes Ji Lun.
He dotes on his Biyu and teaches her the dances himself; he does not grudge coral, but gives it away to others.
At dawn in the spring window the nine-fold flame dies; its flakes fly like petals through the carved lattice.
When the play is over she has never a moment to rehearse her songs; dressed, she only sits amid the incense.
All whom she knows in the city are of the wealthy; day and night she passes by the houses of Zhao and Li.
Who pities the girl of Yue with a face like jade, poor and lowly, washing silk by the river herself?
Meaning
In Luoyang there is a young woman who lives across the way from my house, just fifteen or sixteen, in the bloom of youth, exceedingly beautiful.
Her husband rides a grey-and-white steed whose trappings are inlaid with precious jade; her maid offers a golden plate holding finely cooked carp.
The painted vermilion towers of her house stand in rows facing one another; red peaches and green willows are set in lines beneath the eaves.
The carriage she rides is made of seven kinds of fragrant wood, with curtains of silk gauze hung about it; servants hold up feather fans and escort her back to the embroidered canopy figured with nine blossoms.
Her husband is in the pride of youth and at the height of favor, more arrogant and extravagant than Shi Jilun.
He himself teaches his beloved concubines to dance, and gives away rare coral trees to others as carelessly as he pleases.
They make merry all night long; only when dawn appears at the window do they put out the lamps, and the charred wick flakes fall piece by piece upon the carved lattice.