Green, green the river-side grass - Anonymous

Green, green the river-side grass,
Dense, dense the garden willows,
Fair, fair the girl upstairs,
Bright, bright she faces the casement,
Gay, gay her red-powdered face,
Slender, slender the white hand she extends

Sometime a singing-girl,
Now she is a traveller’s wife;
The traveller has departed and returns not,
And a mateless bed is hard to keep alone.

---

Anonymous (2nd century) China
Translated by N.L. Smith and R.H. Kotewell
Source: British Museum Chinese Love Poetry edited by Jane Portal, British Museum Press, 2004
From: The Nineteen Old Poems (Gǔshī Shíjiǔ Shǒu,  古詩十九首)