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Du Fu - Song Of Lovely Women
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Third day, third month festival,
     and the air fresh with spring;
beside Serpentine Lake in Chang`an,
     many lovely women stroll.
Their appearance is elegant,
     their thoughts lofty and refined,
their complexions delicate,
     figures in perfect proportion.
Their embroidered silk gowns
     glisten with spring light;
golden peacocks and beasts of silver
     strut upon the fabric.
What is it that they wear
     upon their heads?
Jeweled headbands with kingfisher feathers,
     dangling to their hairlines.
And what is it that we see
     upon their backs?
Pearl-studded overskirts
     drawn tight at the waist.
Among them are kin of the Pepper-flower Chamber*      with its cloud-patterned curtains-
the Duchesses of Guo and Qin,
     honored with the names of nations!

A great roast of purple camel hump
     rises from a green cauldron,
and crystal plates gleam
     with heaps of white-scaled fish.
But the rhinoceros horn chopsticks,*
     long-sated, are slow to descend,
and the belled knife-handles
     dance vainly above the roast.
The flying steeds of the eunuchs
     hardly stir the dust,
as they bear in eight exotic dishes
     from the Imperial Kitchens.
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