Poetry Index
Complete collection of poems, songs, verdicts, and riddles from Dream of the Red Chamber.
Poetry Index
Verdict on Qingwen
判词A clear moon is hard to find, bright clouds are quick to scatter. Her heart aspired higher than the sky, yet her station was lowly.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Xiren
判词In vain her gentle, yielding ways— In vain they say she's sweet as orchid bloom.
Chapter 5
Joint Verdict on Daiyu and Baochai
判词Alas for her wifely virtue, the weaver who stopped her loom! How pitiful her poetic gift, like willow-down in the breeze!
Chapter 5
Verdict on Yuanchun
判词For twenty years she learned to judge the right and wrong; Pomegranate blossoms lit the palace halls.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Tanchun
判词Her talent keen, her aspirations high, But born in declining times, her fortune waned.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Xiangyun
判词What use is wealth and rank? While still in swaddling clothes, she lost her parents.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Miaoyu
判词She wished for purity but was never pure; She claimed emptiness, yet was never empty.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Yingchun
判词Her match was the Zhongshan wolf, Who, once successful, turned savage and wild.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Xichun
判词She saw through the three springs' fleeting glory; Black robes replaced her former finery.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Wang Xifeng
判词A fine bird born unluckily in a declining age; All admired her talent in this life.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Qiaojie
判词When power fails, speak not of noble birth; When the family falls, talk not of kinship.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Li Wan
判词Peach and plum in spring wind—her son's career complete; In the end, who compares to a pot of orchids?
Chapter 5
Verdict on Qin Keqing
判词In love's heaven and love's ocean, an illusory form of love; When passions meet, they must lead to excess.
Chapter 5
Verdict on Xiangling
判词Her root shared with the lotus, one stalk of fragrance; Her lifetime's encounters were truly lamentable.
Chapter 5
Erta: Prelude to A Dream of Red Mansions
曲词Since the dawn of creation, who has been the lover true? All because the wind and moon stirred passion deep.
Chapter 5
Erta: A Lifelong Mistake
曲词All say it is a match of gold and jade; But I recall only the pledge between stone and flower.
Chapter 5
Vain Longing
曲词One is a fairy flower from the Celestial Garden, The other a flawless piece of precious jade.
Chapter 5
Hating Impermanence
曲词Just when glory and splendor are at their height, Impermanence arrives again, hateful and abrupt.
Chapter 5
Parting from Flesh and Blood
曲词Three thousand leagues of wind and rain under one sail, All flesh and blood and homeland left behind.
Chapter 5
Sorrow in Joy
曲词While still in swaddling clothes, alas, both parents died. Though raised amid silks and satins, who truly cared for her?
Chapter 5