On Red Lotus Petals
- Poetry of Jiang Kui

吴兴号水晶宫，荷花盛丽。陈简斋云：“今年何以报君恩，一路荷花相送到青墩。”亦可见矣。丁末之夏，予游千岩，数往来红香中,自度此曲，以无射宫歌之。

枕簟邀凉，琴书换日，睡余无力。

细洒冰泉，并刀破甘碧。

墙头唤酒，谁问讯、城南诗客。

岑寂，高柳晚蝉，说西风消息。

虹梁水陌，鱼浪吹香，红衣半狼藉。

维舟试望，故国渺天北。

可惜柳边沙外，不共美人游历。

问甚时同赋，三十六陂秋色。

Wu Xing, also known as the City on Water, is noted for its brilliant and exuberant lotuses. Chen Yuyi’s lines, “To repay your kindness this year / I’ll escort you home with lotuses all the way”, are evidence of this. In the summer of the year Ding Wei (1187), I visited Qianyuan and passed by the lotus ponds several times. So I produced this tune and set its keynote to Wuyigong (B flat).

On cool and inviting bamboo mat and pillow

Browsing and plucking strings, I lead an idle life;

Listless after sleep, I spray icy water

On a melon, and cut it with a sharp knife.

I order wine from a peddler beyond the wall

Then I feel keenly the loneliness –

Who’ll come and comfort a poet in his roaming?

Breaking the silence at dusk

From high within the willows

The chirping of cicadas foretells the west wind’s coming.

Bridges like rainbows fly across dikes

From the waves fragrance gushes forth.

Red petals half cover the pools’ surface,

I moor my boat to gaze at the misty North.

But my home lies out of sight!

What a pity! I can not saunter

With the friend I miss on this islet’s sandy shore.

– When shall we together sing

Of the autumnal splendour reflected on the water?