University of Virginia Library

樂府 王維 洛陽女兒行

洛陽女兒對門居, 纔可容顏十五餘;
良人玉勒乘驄馬, 侍女金盤膾鯉魚。
畫閣朱樓盡相望, 紅桃綠柳垂簷向。
羅帷送上七香車, 寶扇迎歸九華帳。
狂夫富貴在青春, 意氣驕奢劇季倫。
自憐碧玉親教舞, 不惜珊瑚持與人。
春窗曙滅九微火, 九微片片飛花璅。
戲罷曾無理曲時, 妝成祇是薰香坐。
城中相識盡繁華, 日夜經過趙李家。
誰憐越女顏如玉? 貧賤江頭自浣紗。

Folk-song-styled-verse
Wang Wei A SONG OF A GIRL FROM LOYANG

There's a girl from Loyang in the door across the street,
She looks fifteen, she may be a little older.
...While her master rides his rapid horse with jade bit an bridle,
Her handmaid brings her cod-fish in a golden plate.
On her painted pavilions, facing red towers,
Cornices are pink and green with peach-bloom and with willow,
Canopies of silk awn her seven-scented chair,
And rare fans shade her, home to her nine-flowered curtains.
Her lord, with rank and wealth and in the bud of life,
Exceeds in munificence the richest men of old.
He favours this girl of lowly birth, he has her taught to dance;
And he gives away his coral-trees to almost anyone.
The wind of dawn just stirs when his nine soft lights go out,
Those nine soft lights like petals in a flying chain of flowers.
Between dances she has barely time for singing over the songs;
No sooner is she dressed again than incense burns before her.
Those she knows in town are only the rich and the lavish,
And day and night she is visiting the hosts of the gayest mansions.
...Who notices the girl from Yue with a face of white jade,
Humble, poor, alone, by the river, washing silk?