How I’d translate an ode to lotuses that says a lotus is not “妖” if I’m trying to respect the fact it’s being serious: a lotus is not gilded by pretentions What my notes actually say: a lotus is not tarted up like a slutty, slutty rose

An interesting case of managing to encode misogyny directly into the writing system — if you look up 妖 in the dictionary, the first sense given will be “demon”, but note the female (女) radical. Said of a beautiful woman, 妖 implies there’s something fundamentally deceitful and wicked about her attractiveness.