Venice masks

Saturday 27 September 2014

from: The Nymph of the Luo River - Cao Zhi

All at once she straightens herself
Skipping this way and that.
To her left a brilliant streamer,
on her right a cassia flag.
O she bares her white wrist at the fairy bank.
she plucks lingzhi from the shallows.
O how my emotions delight in her pure beauty,
Yet my heart is troubled and anxious.
Lacking a good matchmaker to convey my joy,
I consign my words to the gentle waves.
Longing to expess my sincerity in advance
I unfasten a jade ornament by way of a sign

Cao Zhi (192-232)
"Nymph of the Luo River"
Detail of the scroll by 
Gu Kaizhi

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