Page:A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1919).djvu/50

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like snow. Her waist is like a roll of new silk, her teeth are like little shells. A single one of her smiles would perturb the whole city of Yang and derange the suburb of Hsia-ts'ai.[1] For three years this lady has been climbing the garden wall and peeping at me, yet I have never succumbed.

"How different is the behaviour of master Tēng-t'u! His wife has a woolly head and misshapen ears; projecting teeth irregularly set; a crook in her back and a halt in her gait. Moreover, she has running sores in front and behind.

"Yet Tēng-t'u fell in love with her and caused her to bear him five children.

"I would have your Majesty consider which of us is the debauchee."

Sung Yü was not dismissed from court.

  1. Fashionable quarters in the capital of Ch'u state.
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