White Ramie Cloth Songs and Dance: Four Seasonal Poems
白 纻 歌 舞 四 时 词
四 月 以 后 五 月 前
麦 风 槐 雨 黄 梅 天。
居 王 若 道 嫌 五 月
六 月 炎 蒸 又 何 说。
水 精 宫 殿 冰 雪 山
芙 蕖 衣 裳 菱 芡 盘。
老 农 背 脊 晒 欲 裂
君 王 犹 道 深 宫 热！
Bai Zhu Ge Wu Si Shi Ci
Si yue yi hou wu yue qian
Mai feng huai yu hung mei tian.
Ju wang re dao xian wu yue
Liu yue yan zheng you he shui?
Shui jing gong dian bing xue shan
Fu qu yi chang ling qian pan.
Lao nong bei ji shai yu lie
Jun wang you dao shen gong re!
White Ramie Cloth Songs and Dance: Four Seasonal Poems
In between the end of the fourth lunar month and the beginning of the fifth
Spring winds through the wheat, rain on the scholar trees, skies filled with yellow plum trees.
Imperial monarchs hate this fifth month of heat and humidity
What can they do about the increasing heat of the sixth month.
Inside palace walls their purified water comes from the ice of snowy mountains
Lotus-flowered skirts and clothes with plates of water caltrop.
While the shoulders of old farmers break open and slump under the sun
And the paths within the palace are deep enough to avoid the heat.