To the courtesan Qīng Lín

queerasfact:

On your slender body
Your jade and coral girdle ornaments chime
Like those of a celestial companion
Come from the Green Jade City of Heaven.
One smile from you when we met,
And I become speechless and forget every word.
For too long you have gathered flowers,
And leaned against the bamboos,
Your green sleeves growing cold,
In your deserted valley:
I can visualise you all alone,
A girl harbouring her cryptic thoughts.

You glow like a perfumed lamp
In the gathering shadows.
We play wine games
And recite each other poems.
Then you sing “Remembering South of the River”
With its heart-breaking verses.
We both are talents who paint our eyebrows.
Unconventional as I am,
I want to possess the promised heart of a beautiful woman like you.
It is spring.

Vast mists over the Five Lakes.
My dear, let me buy a red painted boat
And carry you away.

贈吳門青林校書

珊珊瑣骨、
似碧城仙侶、
一笑相逢淡忘語。
鎮拈花、
倚竹翠袖生寒、
空穀裏、
相見個儂幽緒。

蘭釭低照影、
賭酒評詩、
便唱江南斷腸句。
一樣掃眉才、
偏我清狂、
要消受玉人心許。

正漠漠、煙波五湖春、
待買個紅船載卿同去。

This poem was written in the early-to-mid 1800s by the female poet Wú Zǎo, describing her love for another woman, Qīng Lín. Zǎo wrote several love poems to women, and a play exploring gender identity. You can learn more about her in our podcast!

(Sources: English translation  from Tze-Lan D. Sang’s

The Emerging Lesbian: Female Same-Sex Desire in Modern China, p.60-1; original Chinese quoted in 

桑梓蘭, 

浮現中的女同性戀: 現代中國的女同性愛欲, p.66. I don’t speak Chinese but I have done my best to source this in a useful way!)