Song of a Chaste Woman

by Zhang Ji of Tang Dynasty

You know I have husband;

Yet you give me a pair of pearls.

I feel your love for me,

And tie them on my red gauze dress.

You have high tower after tower at home;

My husband holds a halberd in Mingguang Hall¹.

I know your heart as clearly as the sun and moon.

But I’m loyal to husband, having vowed to live and die together.

So I have to return the pearls to you, with tears down my face;

I only regret that we didn’t meet before marriage.