Translator’s Note: “Sorrowful Spring” is a poem by the Ming Dynasty courtesan Yáng Wǎn (?-1644). She was famous in her own time for her calligraphy, paintings, and poetry. Though she had many relationships with both men and women over the course of her life, her deepest was with a fellow courtesan and poet named Wáng Wēi, who wrote several passionate love poems about her. Yáng Wǎn was tragically murdered by bandits during the social upheaval at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Only a few of her poems have survived.

Carolanna Lisonbee is a writer, translator, English teacher, and amateur globetrotting adventuress from Utah, currently living in Taiwan. Her poems and translations have been published in Tea-ku: Poems About Tea by Local Gems Press, Reliquiae, issue 10.1, published by Corbel Stone Press, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, The Whiskey Blot, AzonaL, and Book of Matches Literary Journal. She posts on Instagram as carolanna_joy_poetry.