Painting of a lady by Zhou Fan

Everyone else has left for a picnic by the river, but our lady has slept in. It’s springtime. An open window brings in the scent of flowers. She washes her face. The painter catches her as she stands and faces the window. Swallows dance and orioles cry; she yawns. The painter would like to depict deeper thoughts but she doesn’t turn to show her face. On his donkey, as he rode down to the river, Du Fu didn’t see her at all. He was distracted by pageantry and color, but I can’t stop thinking about this lone woman. Back home, happy to see my wife, I wonder why the lady in the painting was alone.