西湖
[清]柳如是
垂杨小院绣帘东，
莺阁残枝蝶趁风。
大抵西泠[1]寒食路，
桃花得气美人中。
注释：
[1]西泠：亦称“西陵桥”或“西林桥”。在杭州孤山西北尽头处，是由孤山入北山的必经之路。
West Lake
Liu Rushi[1]
The weeping willows stand east of the curtained bowers;
Orioles and butterflies pass through the faded flowers.
But peach blossoms on Cold Food Day are beautified
By beauties living or buried by the lakeside[2].
注释：
[1]The poetess was first in love with Chen Zilong who resisted the Qing conquerors and drowned himself when defeated. At last, she was wedded to Qian Qianyi.
[2]General Yue Fei was the hero and Su Xiaoxiao and Feng Xiaoqing were beauties buried by the side of West Lake.
Liu Rushi, a female poet in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, was born Yang Ai, with the courtesy name Rushi, also known as Hedong Jun. She named herself Rushi because she read the poem “He Xinlang” by Xin Qiji of the Song Dynasty: “I see the green mountains are so charming, I guess the green mountains see me like this”, and was born in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. Liu Rushi is one of the “Eight Beauties of Qinhuai”. She was smart and studious since childhood, but because of her poor family, she was abducted and sold since she was a child, and traveled between Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jinling in the turbulent times. The works she left behind mainly include “Grass on the Lake”, “Grass in the Year of the Tiger” and “Letters”.
