The gauze curtain half-rolled, the door half-closed;
Ice ground to soil, jade fashioned into pot.
She stole three parts of whiteness from the pear blossom,
And borrowed one thread of soul from the plum flower.
A fairy from the moon's grotto sews a white silk robe;
An autumn maiden in her chamber wipes her tear-stains dry.
Shyly, silently—to whom can she confide?
Weary, she leans in the west wind as night grows dark.
English titles, text, and notes are AI-assisted for reading only; for scholarship cite the Chinese and authoritative editions.
Annotation
Composed by Lin Daiyu, praised by all as 'uniquely elegant.' 'She stole three parts of whiteness from the pear / And borrowed one thread of soul from the plum' is a celebrated couplet, endowing the begonia with the pear's purity and the plum's proud spirit—a self-portrait of Daiyu's own character. 'Shyly, silently—to whom can she confide?' captures her loneliness as a dependent in another's household.
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