🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦 quoted 楚辞: Elegies of the South by 许渊冲(翻译)
"On the other hand, Elegies of the South may be said to be the earliest …
The Young Goddess of Fate
Autumn orchids, oh! and flowers sweet Like silver stars, oh! grow at our feet. Their leaves are green, oh! and blossoms white; Fragrance assails us, oh! left and right All women have, oh! fair ones they love. Why are you sad, oh! lonely above?
— 楚辞: Elegies of the South by 许渊冲(翻译), Xu Yuanchong (translator) (Page 59)
Mythical imagery, it seems, is used in the first stanza of this poem to illustrate a lover or desired one. Then the poem flips this on its head and portrays the fickleness of lovers as a personification of fate. The imagery used, even through translation, is first-class and the skill of the poet in navigating that transition is made manifestly clear.