a phrase i don't understand

[gonghai]

ok i have a question on about a phrase "ruby lips"

i know it means very red but when you say the play is a ruby lips

so the play is very red. ok
does that symbolize something of the play?
does red symbolize love? lips symbolize a kiss?


thanks in advance

[Tdol]

I've never heard it used in this way. I'd guess it means a romantic play.

[gonghai]

That’s what I think too but what is really akward is that one of the poems in the play goes like this

I dash aside the manly tear

And take leave of my monkish home

A word of thanks to you, my master dear,

Who tonsured me before the Lotus throne:

Twas not my luck to stay with you

And in a short while I must say adieu,

Naked and friendless through the world to roam.

I ask no goods, no gear to take away,

Only straw sandals and a broken bowl,

To beg from place to place as best I may;



This is a poem on p 435 from a book called story of the stone- translated by david hawks



I was thinking is there another meaning to the word ruby lips

Because the poem doesn’t sound romantic its sounds more like the man leaving the women behind.