What have we here? Let us read; this scroll one of a thousand sent us in haste by the Duke of Dei; Oh, a poem of love - surprise! - it is written in fine ink and with the best brush one can buy in all of China
And ladies, now I read this poem of screaming passion:
“Oh lady of blue! who spends her time in the blue pavilion! my mind is blue! all for the love of you! and my heart is broken! in pieces too! for you do not love me! though I love you true!”
Ah, true, true indeed I do not love this poet with purple verse and broken limbs of lines; the poor duke’s heart is broken just like his rhyme and reason; come let us pen an answer and his delicate ladies will bring it back to him
“Oh Duke of Dei whose heart is broken like pots of China; blue, blue is your mind for the desperate love of the lady in blue who does not love you: but there is some solution some solution for your broken heart O Duke of Dei – some glue, some glue can hold together the broken pieces; Your True Lady in Blue who is almost turning blue – for the thousandth time, I do not love you”
Painting: Paintings of Ladies (Leaf 4) by Jiao Bingzhen