The Daughter of the Luoyang Family (Wang Wei)

The daughter of Luoyang lives opposite my gate; her face is just past fifteen years of age. Her husband rides a blue-maned steed with jade-adorned bit; her maids bring minced carp on golden plates. Painted towers and crimson pavilions face each other, with red peaches and green willows hanging from the eaves. She is sent off in a seven-scented fragrant carriage (seven-scented carriage: a carriage coated with various perfumes), and upon return, she is ushered into the Nine-Flower Canopy (ornate bed-curtains) amid a flutter of treasure fans (ceremonial fans). Her frivolous husband, in the prime of youth and wealth, is so proud and extravagant that he outshines Shi Chong (Jilun: the style name of Shi Chong, a wealthy man of the Western Jin dynasty). She cherishes her own jade-like beauty and personally teaches dance; she carelessly gives away coral trees to anyone. At dawn by the window, the Ninefold Lamp (Ninefold: a lamp name) is only just extinguished as the first light appears; fragments of the lamp wick scatter like flying blossoms onto the window lattice. After playing, she has no leisure to practice music; after dressing, she merely sits idle, perfuming her robes. All her acquaintances in the city are from noble and powerful families; day and night she frequents the mansions of Zhao and Li (general references to noble clans). Who pities the Yue girl (Xishi), whose face is like jade, who in her poverty once washed silk alone by the river?