" Like spendthrift youths in spring's new fashions dressed,
Its bare thin branches burst in glorious flower.
Snow no more falls, but a bright rosy cloud
Tints hills and streams in one long sunset hour.
Through this red flood my dream-boat makes its way,
While flutes sound chill from many a maiden's bower.
Sure from no earthly stock this beauty came,
But trees immortal round the Fairy Tower. "
― Cao Xueqin , The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Vol. 2: The Crab-Flower Club