Art: comics: Mao comic

Context: Girl = cat. Guy = mouse. Cat has love/hate relationship with mouse (traditional zodiac conundrum). Mouse completely clueless. Mao = Chinese for "cat". Also temperamental leader of China from the 40s to the 70s.

Loose Translation:

"The fortune-teller's verse form: On Plum Blossoms"


Part I: by a Song dynasty poet.
"By the side of the crumbling bridge outside the post-station"
"It blooms lonely and unclaimed"


"In the twilight it sorrows alone"
"buffeted anew by wind and rain"


"It shunned the bitter spring rivalries"
"and yet bears the jealousy of the other flowers"


"Scattered into mud and ground into dust"
"only the fragrance remains of old"


Part II: Mao's response poem
"The wind and rain escort the return of spring"
"The snow flurries welcome spring's return"


"mile-deep glaciers loom on the cliffs"
"lo a bright flower branch"


"the bright flower does not squabble for spring"
"it merely heralds the spring"


"when the wildflowers are a-bloom"
"she is smiling in the wind"