The Beautiful People
Du Fu; Translation By Jim Maybury

Spring Festival Day
           is bright and clear
On the banks of the Qu River
stroll groups
                                     of lovely young women.
Their faces are gaily painted
their attitudes
                   gentle and still.
The have smooth skin
                       and shapely bodies.
Their silk clothing
gleams
                            in the late spring,
embossed
                            with silver unicorns
                                and golden peacocks.
                       What do they wear on their heads?
                  A small jade coiffure
                              covers the temples.
        What do we see on their backs?
A pearl belt
        encircles
                           each firm, slim waist.
           Among them the most splendid
                  are the Emperor's relations,
          to whom he has given
                  the royal names
                  of Lu and Qin.
A jade pot contains        
the purple meat  
of the camel's hump,
and there is fresh fish             
on a crystal plate.      
Bored with this banquet                           
the young ladies                    
hold
                                           their rhinoceroshorn chopsticks
  lazily
         in the air;
while the bells
                          on the cooks' knives
   jingle
    busily
                      in the emptiness.
Eunuchs on horseback       
come and go     
         so swiftly
they do not stir    
     the dust,
bringing from  
                           the Emperor's kitchen
               the Eight Precious Foods--
            bear's paw,
                  leopard's fetus,
                   orangutan's lips,
             and the rest.
Drums pounding             
    and bamboo flutes
      wailing
are enough to move
                 ghosts and gods.
Aspiring guests                   
mill around              
                          the Emperor's relations.
But why does                          
the Prime Minister       
 come now, 
so nonchalant on horseback,
right to the pavilion,              
    where he dismounts
        on the brocade carpet?
Willow blossoms                        
fall like snow                   
             covering the duckweed.
A bluebird                                         
might try to pick                  
     some red kerchief.
Yet among such haughty ones              
wise heads                              
keep cool hands,
lest that big brother                
bare his wrath.    

-- Du Fu