Lover’s spat

A young bride picks a sweetbriar rose early in the morning. What a fresh flower it is! It beautifully glistens with overnight rain. The lady seems confident enough to reaffirm her love for her husband even in front of this lovely flower. “Who’s prettier, the flower or me?” The bride is already excited to expect to be chosen over the flower. The husband gives her a mischievous answer, “No matter how pretty you are, you are not much more gorgeous than the flower, are you?” With a pouty look, the bride says, “Then, you should go sleep with that flower thing tonight.” Well, it is an open secret that she just pretends to be sulky.”

This poem is dedicated to the drawing “Holding a Flower and Smiling.” You may think that the author produced an interesting story by looking at the smiling lady holding a flower in the drawing, which is not true. Several hundred years earlier during the Goryeo Dynasty, poet Lee Gyu-Bo sang a verse while picking flowers, and this song reminds us of the poem. The only difference is that Lee describes a peony. This only makes us assume that Lee’s poetic novelty might have deeply impressed the poet.