Song of Eternal Sorrow
Hidden from the world,
with grace favoured by heaven,
is this fresh beauty from the Yang family
Yang Kuei-fei in Bai Chi-yi's Song of Eternal Sorrow, depicted by Shanghai artist Yao Yuxin. This is the first of 10 scroll paintings showing various scenes from the narrative poem, exhibited and sold in Singapore in 1996 to raise funds for a secondary school.
The Chinese text excerpt reads from the right, in vertical top-down fashion: "The Yang family has a girl, just grown up / Living in seclusion, not known by anyone / But with a heavenly beauty difficult to conceal..."
Next painting: Miss Yang fresh from her bath
