Name: Anonymous 2011-04-20 13:58
In Chinese poetry, the word 君 is commonly used by female speakers as "you" when referring to their male lovers. In modern Chinese, I think it may be gender-neutral to an extent, but also may more easily refer to a prince or lord. I believe in modern Japanese it's used in the same way it is in those poems though.
My question is, in Chinese poetry, what would be the opposite? That is, a word a male speaker would use for "you" when referring to his female lover. In those few poems I have annotated translations for where it's a male speaker talking about a woman, she's referred to in a roundabout way, never with a personal pronoun.
I've been trying my damnedest to research this, but sadly my Chinese has fallen to the point where I can't really read the dictionaries without using a translator for the definitions. I was fixated on 汝 (which is rendered 女 in older poems) for awhile, but I'm not so sure that it implies the target is female, rather than simply of lower social standing.
My question is, in Chinese poetry, what would be the opposite? That is, a word a male speaker would use for "you" when referring to his female lover. In those few poems I have annotated translations for where it's a male speaker talking about a woman, she's referred to in a roundabout way, never with a personal pronoun.
I've been trying my damnedest to research this, but sadly my Chinese has fallen to the point where I can't really read the dictionaries without using a translator for the definitions. I was fixated on 汝 (which is rendered 女 in older poems) for awhile, but I'm not so sure that it implies the target is female, rather than simply of lower social standing.