Vice Minister Yi Replied Again and Sent It to Me, so on the Spot I Matched His Rhymes and Gave It to Him李亞卿復和來贈。卽席次韻贈之。
何必將鯖號五侯。學君養菜得神符。家貧無計充离腹。園禿方欣借賁鬚。恐我不如爲圃老。有時應作堰苗愚。甕頭釀熟能來否。把此猶堪到首濡。
Why must one set out fish and meat to be called one of the Five Lords (五侯)? From you I learned the raising of greens and got a wondrous tally. My house being poor, there was no way to fill an empty belly, and I am glad the bare garden has just now borrowed adornment, as whiskers are adorned. I fear I may fall short of the old man of the vegetable plot, and that at times I may become the fool who pulls the sprouts up. The wine in the jar has ripened; can you come? With this alone there is enough to wet even your head.
Interlinear notes 2
二首○來詩。一菜種。一任意。故順之。
Two poems. ○ The poems he sent were one chanting vegetable seed and one chanting as the mood took him, so I followed suit.
賁六二。賁其鬚。謂九三得六二。以飾其鬚。又其應六五曰。賁于園。
In the 「Book of Changes」, the second six of the Bi hexagram (賁卦) says 「he adorns his whiskers」, meaning that the third nine obtains the second six and adorns its whiskers. And its correspondent, the fifth six, says 「he adorns the garden」.
取爵曾同偶中侯。行藏未必係天符。畏途不忌搖長啄。閑境如今數短鬚。已喜處陰方息影。何須揭日更驚愚。期君驟踐經綸地。坐使蒼生沐澤濡。
Getting office was once like hitting the mark of a target, but advancing and withdrawing is not necessarily bound to heaven's tally. On the fearful road I did not shrink from wagging a long beak, and in this place of leisure I now count my short whiskers. Dwelling in the shade, I already delight in letting my shadow rest; why raise the sun again and startle the fool? I wish that you would soon tread the seat of governing the state, and, sitting still, let the people be steeped in your bounty.