Flowers fade and fly, filling the sky;
Red gone, fragrance broken—who will take pity?
English titles, text, and notes are AI-assisted for reading only; for scholarship cite the Chinese and authoritative editions.
Annotation
The opening two lines of the Burying Flowers lament, the most famous introduction to the poem. In Chapter 27 during the Grain in Ear festival, Daiyu carried her flower hoe, gathered fallen petals in a brocade bag, dug a grave, and buried the flowers. These two lines open the poem's meditation on fate, youth, and beauty.
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