Easing My Heart
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
楚腰纤细掌中轻。
十年一觉扬州梦，
赢得青楼薄幸名。
English translation
Broken and adrift, I roamed river and lake with wine at hand, slender Chu waists light as if held upon the palm.
Ten years, and one waking from the Yangzhou dream, all I won was a heartless name in the courtesans' quarter.
Meaning
In those years I drifted through the rivers and lakes, drinking and letting myself go, caring only for slender waists that could dance in the palm of a hand, light and graceful. Ten years of wine and song in Yangzhou were like a dream, and in the end I was left with nothing but a name for fickleness in the houses of song.
Background
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This poem should be dated to the period of Du Mu's tenure as governor of Huangzhou; it recalls his Yangzhou years of ten years before. From the seventh to the ninth year of the Dahe era of Emperor Wenzong (833–835), Du Mu served in the staff of Niu Sengru, military commissioner of Huainan, first as a judicial officer and then as secretary, residing at Yangzhou. He was then thirty-one or thirty-two, and much given to feasting and excursions.