Matching the Rhymes of Vice Minister Yi's Five Poems in Reply, I Answer with Seven次韻李侍郞見和五首。予以七首答之。
想君方對兩三莖。猶愛尖尖撲地生。明日廻看荷葉大。方秋已拾玉膏輕。知公自惜無雙味。餉我應須第一成。非鵠非鷄能伏卵。不魚不肉尙宜羹。暫通灰焰熏猶可。微帶泥痕洗必精。要且邀來開劇飮。卽於前貺頗塡平。
I take it that you now sit facing two or three stalks, loving how sharply they have pushed up out of the ground. Look again tomorrow and they will be big as lotus leaves, and when autumn comes you will already be gathering light jade fat. Though you keep that matchless savour for yourself, I know that in sending to me you picked out the best ripened. Neither swan nor hen, it knows how to brood an egg; neither fish nor flesh, it is fit for a soup. It is good roasted a moment in the embers, and if a little mud still clings, a washing makes it clean. Come what may I must invite you and set out a full drinking party, and make up, if only a little, the kindness I had before.
挼藍染葉玉删莖。初若艱生旋易生。賴是地腴功轉速。假如土瘠養何輕。莫言始入秋排出。却認多更月孕成。我老偏憐蔬適口。人看應訝卵投羹。須知外有團圓殼。決是中凝混沌精。久不訪之翻貺物。從今連到卽心平。
As though indigo were rubbed to dye the leaves and jade carved for the stalks; at first they seemed hard to come, and soon they come easily. Thanks to the soil's richness the work goes all the faster; had the earth been parched, how would the raising have been easy? Do not say that they push out only when autumn comes in: you must know they were brooded many months before they ripened. Being old, I find greens that suit my mouth especially dear, while others will wonder whether eggs were thrown into the soup. Know this: outside there is a round shell, and within, the essence of chaos (混沌) is congealed. You had long not called, and yet you send me a gift; if from now on they keep coming, my mind will be at ease.
Interlinear notes 1
天地如雞子曰混沌
Heaven and earth being like a hen's egg is called chaos.
我本難知養出莖。甚時栽了甚時生。方從濯濯琳條直。已到離離玉實輕。君自好仁多隱德。物猶知感喜繁成。中廚若欲調眞味。熾火當須作定羹。小必地中和碎璧。大應天上應圓精。明年不死如無恙。傾橐宜求沃野平。
I have always found it hard to know how the stalks are raised, and do not know when they are planted or when they come up. I thought clean jade branches had only just stood up straight, and already it has come to clusters of light jade fruit. You love goodness and have much hidden virtue, so things too know how to be moved and gladly ripen in plenty. If the true savour is to be drawn out in the kitchen, the fire must be built up strong and the soup properly boiled. The small ones must have mixed underground with broken jade, and the large ones answered to the round essence above the sky. If next year I am not dead and have no mishap, I must empty my purse if need be and get myself a rich field.
庭下休栽竹數莖。自諳老境幾何生。如玆時菜猶堪種。都爲慵奴未遽輕。唯羨君園能得養。坐看秋實自然成。忽分膩滑敎充膳。何必鮮腥始辦羹。好味但知嘗了過。方經何暇講來精。若言有栗視千戶。此亦堪觀一等平。
Do not plant a few stalks of bamboo below the yard; in old age one knows for oneself how much longer one will live. Greens in season like these would still be worth planting, but because of the lazy servant I cannot readily set to it. I only envy how well your field can raise them, and sit watching the autumn fruit ripen of itself. Suddenly you share out the smooth things to fill my side dishes; why must it be something fishy to make a soup of? Of a fine savour I know only how to taste it and pass on; it has only just gone by — what leisure have I to weigh it precisely? If one says that having chestnut trees matches a thousand households, then this too may be reckoned of the same rank.
Interlinear notes 1
來詩云
The poem he sent said so.
要防兒輩折新莖。凡草猶難足踏生。趁得秋天良甚愛。雖云菜物詎能輕。只應自有神潛護。不爾那將力便成。富屋莫嫌充上味。肥僧寧或啖鮮羹。魁能連小侔騈拇。卵必藏深嗇內精。益氣補脾何更問。有遭蜂螫借渠平。
The children must be kept from breaking the new stalks, and even common grass, once trodden underfoot, hardly lives. Meeting with autumn they are truly most dear; greens though they be, how should I hold them light? Surely there is a spirit that quietly guards them; otherwise how should it be done by strength alone? Even in a well-off house do not be loth to serve them as a fine dish: how should a well-fed monk eat a fishy soup? The large lump carries small ones hanging on it, like toes grown joined, and the corms are always hidden deep, sparing the essence within. What need to ask again how it raises the humours and benefits the spleen? If anyone is stung by a bee, let him borrow this to soothe it.
人人好自食柔莖。冬亦和鹽爛革生。葉貴貪收乾必用。卵宜作種蓄難輕。知君於物偏能化。有地何年未輒成。本爲豪飡依子宅。豈期窮巷落吾羹。但聞人號爲蔬美。敢導吾曾命物精。若作純圓看體滑。些些癭處削堪平。
Everyone takes pleasure in eating the tender stalks, and in winter they are salted down so that even the tough grow soft. The leaves are precious: gathered and dried they are sure to be used, and the corms must serve as seed, so storing them is no light matter. I know how well you bring things up, so with land at hand, in what year would they not ripen? To eat my fill I must of course lean on your house, but how did I look for them to fall into my soup in a mean back lane? I had only heard others call it the fairest among greens; dare I set it up as a thing I myself called good long ago? Seen as wholly round, its body is smooth, and where it is a little knobbed, a paring makes it even.
君奴非必引抽莖。何事脩條給給生。未待勤培方苯䔿。偶然坐享此圓輕。雖因世素終須出。初忌人知密爾成。我把手麾令作饌。堪欺指動末嘗羹。廚夫汝莫慵調味。食物吾猶不猒精。得則飡之無則否。若然心意自能平。
It is not that your servant pulled the stalks out to stretch them, so how is it that the long stalks shoot up and up? They grow thick without waiting for diligent banking up, and by chance I sit and enjoy these round, light things. Being there from the first, they were bound to come out at last, but at first, shy of being known, they ripened in secret. I wave my hand and tell them to make a side dish of it, enough to fool the man who moved his finger but never tasted the soup. Kitchen folk, do not be lazy in the seasoning: as for food, I still do not dislike it done nicely. If there is some I eat it, and if not, no matter; then the mind comes at ease of itself.