Wu Tsao

http://www.sappho.com/poetry/wu_tsao.html

Wu Tsao was born sometime around 1800; her year of birth and death are uncertain. She was the daughter of a merchant and married a merchant herself. Her experiences with these men were not positive and she sought out the company of women, as friends and as lovers. She wrote erotic poems to courtesans, creating unashamed lyric passages full of the sweetness of yearning.

She was China's great lesbian poet, and she was popular while she lived, her songs sung throughout China. Her poetry dealt with a variety of topics, unlike other women poets of her time. This versatility, combined with casual style and personal tone, probably contributed to her popularity.

Later in life, Wu Tsao moved to seclusion and became a Taoist priestess.

In regards to Wu Tsao, Kenneth Rexroth writes "She is one of the great Lesbian poets of all time, perhaps not as great as Sappho, but certainly greater than any modern ones." According to Rexroth, Wu Tsao is usually regarded as the third woman poet of China, after Li Ch'ing-chao and Chu Shu-ch & ecircn, and with Ne-lan Hsin-tê as one of the two leading tz'u poets of the Ching (Manchu) Dynasty.

Given the quality of Wu Tsao's work and her history, it is disturbing to find that her name rarely appears in Western profiles of poets, and she is not included in literary discussions of the lesbian poetic tradition.

Editor's note: Finding information on Wu Tsao has proved severely challenging; Kenneth Rexroth (who translated her work) provided the only resources on this poet. Library searches have so far proven fruitless. If you know of any other sources of information on Wu Tsao, please write me with details.

For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin

Untitled (Bitter rain in my courtyard)

Untitled (I have closed the double doors)

For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin

On your slender body

Your jade and coral girdle ornaments chime

Like those of a celestial companion

Come from the Green Jade City of Heaven.

One smile from you when we meet,

And I become speechless and forget every word.

For too long you have gathered flowers,

And leaned against the bamboos,

Your green sleeves growing cold,

In your deserted valley:

I can visualize you all alone,

A girl harboring her cryptic thoughts.

You glow like a perfumed lamp

In the gathering shadows.

We play wine games

And recite each other's poems.

Then you sing `Remembering South of the River'

With its heart breaking verses. Then

We paint each other's beautiful eyebrows.

I want to possess you completely –

Your jade body

And your promised heart.

It is Spring.

Vast mists cover the Five Lakes.

My dear, let me buy a red painted boat

And carry you away.

—Translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung

Bitter Rain In My Courtyard

Bitter rain in my courtyard

In the decline of Autumn,

I only have vague poetic feelings

That I cannot bring together.

They diffuse into the dark clouds

And the red leaves.

After the yellow sunset

The cold moon rises

Out of the gloomy mist.

I will not let down the blinds

Of spotted bamboo from their silver hook.

Tonight my dreams will follow the wind,

Suffering the cold,

To the jasper tower of your beautiful flesh.

—Translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung

I Have Closed The Double Doors

I have closed the double doors.

In what corner of the heavens is she?

A horizontal flute

Beyond the red walls

Blown as gently as the breeze

Blows the willow floss.

In the lingering glow of the sunset

The roosting crows ignore my melancholy.

Once again I languidly get out of bed.

After I have burned incense,

I loiter on the jeweled staircase.

I regret the wasted years,

Sick, afraid of the cold, afraid of the heat,

While the beautiful days went by.

Suddenly it is the Autumn Feast of the Dead.

Constantly disturbed by the changing weather,

I lose track of the flowing light

That washes us away.

Who moved the turning bridges

On my inlaid psaltery?

I realize--

Of the twenty five strings

Twenty one are gone.

—Translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung

Kenneth Rexroth & Lin Chung, Women Poets of China (New York: New Directions, 1972, 1982)

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Last revised: January 8, 1996

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