there would be fewer wars if there were more trees and mountain landscape. Wars are bred in cities."
"That is true. Men listen too seldom to the voices of the trees."
"What I meant, when I addressed you, was that I expected you to be home by now."
"This is my home."
"You live in the garden?"
"What better home could one wish? I have a small house beneath a willow at the river's edge, in a spot so beautiful the moon pauses for a moment each night as it tramps across the sky."
"Lan Jen, our Emperor is in trouble. He has journeyed to the Mountains of Black Despair since the death of his concubine Mei-fei."
"I know. The flowers bow their heads, and their tears mix with the dew."
"We must find a girl so lovely that he will forget all else."
"Why do you come to me?"
"Because slender, graceful girls are akin to flowers."
"That is true. I used to say, 'Has one not noticed the profile of a flower, the lovely clear line of a peony laughing in the sun, or of a rose, lush with morning dew? Is there a music more exquisite than the perfume of a rose? Or a sweeter profile than a simple garden flower?' Then one day, I found an answer. In ebony splendor, the night's blackness had descended. Like startled eyes the stars gazed down, and then, I, too, beheld her. She
was bathing nude in the rock-crystal clearness of a jade
