Five New Songs from the Jade Terrace

New Songs from the Jade Terrace is an anthology of “palace-style” poems focused on erotic topics. Its history is obscure, but it was probably originally compiled in the mid 6th century, using poems mostly from the Southern Dynasties period (420-588) but including both northern and older works, including a few from the Han Dynasty. All of which means in tone and topic, it’s rather different from Tang Dynasty verse, and even more so from the biased (read: moralizing) selection of 300 Tang Poems made a thousand years later.

Below are translations of five poems, three by women, one in a female persona, and one of ambiguous gender, all chosen at random as I scanned through the collection. Because the poems aren’t numbered, I link to each base text. Per my current SOP, I still fail to reproduce rhyme (ah well).

As always, suggestions/discussions/corrections are welcome.

( I raise my sleeve, wanting to block my shame: / I re-conceal it, and tidy my wild hair )

---L.

Index of Chinese translations