The Imperial Exam is over

Emerges the scholars who triumphed

Lavish meal of meat and fish on the round lacquer table

Accompanied by the sound of pipa and erhu

 

I laugh

I talk

I entertain

But that is just a facade

 

Thousand cups of wine filled to the brim

Just like how chatters filled the hall

Thousand cups of wine bottoms up

Just as empty as my heart

 

The banquet ends

The noise dies down

The hall empties

Just like a coffin without a corpse

 

Written at Ping Kang Li, Chang’an’s biggest brothel during the Tang Dynasty, by a courtesan after hosting a celebratory examination banquet for the scholars who had just passed the imperial exam.