One Thought, a Mortal Life · Stubborn and Foolish by Nature · 64 / 102
· Mortal Thoughts
Vain splendor, thin and shallow, touched with a scent that makes one forget sorrow; the things of dreams grow distant. Revelry here, and there red silks vying in beauty. This feeling, this scene, just as they are; this memory, this moment, fading away. It was never more than this: we are blades of grass, and all we ask is a plain, quiet life.
Petals wind about my robe; before the matchless moon is done, my thoughts are taken captive. Who fears half a life spent as a prisoner? For whom was that first meeting? To turn heaven and earth around, you can fight on with no pieces left on the board. I go looking for some delight: the flying white gathers in every cold eye.
Glosses—
red silk (xiāo): thin red silk gauze;
wind about (jiǎo rào): to encircle; to twine, to entangle;
flying white: snowflakes scattering on the wind.
*This piece is an original work. If you repost it, please credit the original author Shixi Lin; any infringement, once discovered, will be pursued to the full extent of the law. In addition, the accompanying illustration comes from the internet and belongs to its original artist, Yichui Wuyue.