Vice Minister Yi Having Replied Again, I Match the Rhymes次韻李侍郞復見和
箇中莫有滑於莖。截作聲何咽澁生。卵不從禽猶愛喫。玉非抵鵲柰投輕。尙疑新向林巢得。未信元依土穴成。每到午天宜代菓。何專子日貶爲羹。憑他天地雖凝氣。孰是雌雄遣構精。瓚老啖時應語子。會須行秉宰衡平。
Among them nothing is smoother than the stalk, so how should a choking, rasping sound come when it is cut? The eggs were not born of a bird, yet gladly we eat them; nor is this jade to be flung at a magpie — how then did you send it so lightly? I still half think they were just fetched from a bird's nest, and cannot believe they ripened all along in a hole in the earth. At midday they would serve in place of fruit; why insist on lowering them to soup alone? They say the breath congealed in reliance on that heaven and earth, but what became male and female and made the essences interweave? When the Seon master Lanzan (懶瓚) ate taro he must have told you that before long you would hold the balance of a chief minister.
Interlinear notes 2
七首
Seven poems.
易曰男女構精也
The Book of Changes says that male and female interweave their essences.
學圃先須種芋莖。秋來捃實當嘉生。蔬能代穀從來重。玉不充飢對爾輕。數斛播收千斛滿。幾家仰賴一家成。箇翁要喫宜盈釜。外客頻來莫頡羹。栗殼毛攢開未穩。薯根皮褁削方精。渾骨▣直唯斯耳。物性猶堪號坦平。
To learn field work one should first plant taro stalks; gather the fruit in autumn and it makes a good yield. Greens that can stand in for grain have been prized from of old, and jade cannot fill hunger, so beside you it is light. Sow a few measures and you reap a thousand to fill your store; several households live by the yield of one. For this old man to eat, the pot must be full, so even if guests come often, do not spare the soup. The chestnut burr has its bristles gathered thick and is not easy to peel, and the yam root is wrapped in skin and must be pared to be clean. Only this has its whole body □ straight, and its nature may well be called broad and level.
此應曾不約於莖。何俟莖繁趁逐生。散似雨泡跳已沒。轉如晴雹落還輕。銀釵股穩頭渾露。璞玉肌全體祕成。蒸瓠呼鵝聞古事。擷蔬名卵是新羹。季秋我得呑空費。寒食人看鏤必精。縱受君傳裁養法。其如踡跼地難平。
This never made any pact with the stalk, so why should it wait for the stalk to thrive and come out after it? In scattering they are like raindrop bubbles that splash and vanish at once, and in rolling they are light as hail falling on a clear day. Trim as the shank of a silver hairpin, the head wholly bared, and like uncut jade, the flesh whole, the body ripened in secret. I have heard the old story of steaming a gourd and calling it a goose; pluck greens and name them eggs, and this is a new soup. In late autumn I got some and swallowed them to no purpose, while at Hansik others look at what is carved and call it finely wrought. Even had I received from you the way of planting and raising them, what can I do, who cannot come by even a patch of ground to crouch on?
Interlinear notes 1
君詩備言裁養之法
In his poem he set out the way of planting and raising them in full.
莫言此是出蔬莖。必畜雞鵝孕得生。不用罄驅腸底去。略須留弄掌中輕。摶膏作餠形難似。輥雪爲毬狀未成。貺可直宜和以豉。古猶相尙饋之羹。宛同羊角抽初茁。敢譬猪肪截未精。爲問湘中無此否。可憐憔悴楚臣平。
Do not say that this came out of a green's stalk; one would think it came only of raising a hen or a goose to brood it. There is no need to drive them down and empty them to the bottom of the gut; leave a few to toss lightly in the palm. Knead fat into a cake and the shape is hard to match, and roll snow into a ball and it will not take that form. What you sent is fit to be mixed right into the bean paste, and in old days too the sending of soup to one another was esteemed. They are just like a ram's horns first budding; dare one compare them to pork fat clumsily sliced? I ask: is there none of this by the Xiang River (湘江)? Alas for the haggard minister of Chu, Qu Ping (屈平)!
慣矣尋常見葉莖。誰知此粲隱而生。珠聯一貫投猶感。瓊實千枚受可輕。鼠壤無蔬心久嘆。雞窼擬卵笑猶成。孫弘相漢嫌重肉。孔聖居陳未糝羹。得此吾猶稱曰美。任他人辨未云精。因思幷設陶陶飮。與子同飡意始平。
The leaves and stalks I have long seen well enough, but who knew that this shining thing grew hidden away? You send them as if beads were strung on one thread, and I am moved; receiving a thousand grains of jade-like fruit, how should it be light? I long lamented that in my rat-gnawed ground there were no greens, and comparing them to eggs in a hen's nest, I laugh in spite of myself. Gongsun Hong, though he became chancellor of Han, did not set out two meat dishes, and Confucius, when he was in Chen, could not put even a grain of rice in his soup. Having got these, I call them fair all the same, and let others object that I am not precise. If on this account we could set them out together and drink deep, and eat with you, then my mind would come at ease at last.
君非不識植蓮莖。待見珠圓實自生。有水有池方可蒔。充蔬充食亦云輕。不如暫忍園夫憊。坐得無窮地寶成。岷下若常收芋種。吳中何更憶菰羹。葵稱鴨脚元難稱。苽號龍蹄亦豈精。爭似此唯眞肖卯。也無廉角一般平。
It is not that you do not know how to plant lotus stems, but one must wait for the round bead-like fruit to come of itself. Only where there is water and a pond can they be planted at all, and for filling out greens and rice they are light besides. Nothing is better than to let the field-keeper bear his weariness a while and sit and gain the endless treasure beneath the ground. Had taro seed always been gathered below Mount Min, what need to think again of the wild-rice soup of Wu (吳)? To call mallow a duck's foot does not fit from the first, and how is calling a melon a dragon's hoof exact? How should they match this, which truly resembles an egg? With no corner anywhere, it is even throughout.
園菜何曾自秀莖。要憑培壅始能生。定應君宅從天賜。毋借人功拔地輕。必也他年居燮理。卽於何物莫財成。似公無恡均分味。在右誰嫌未政羹。此物飽聞能補氣。吾詩割去幾勞精。從今我亦藏餘勇。非是爭鋒却敵平。
How should field greens push out stalks of themselves? Only when banked up can they come out at all. Surely your house is one that Heaven has granted, where they rise easily from the ground without borrowing man's labour. If in days to come you hold the place that governs the land evenly, what thing would you not cut to measure and bring to completion? If, like you, a man shares out savour evenly and without grudging, who standing by would blame him for not seasoning the soup evenly? I have heard my fill of the saying that this benefits the humours, but how much essence has my own poetry cost me in the paring of it? From now on I too shall hide what courage is left me: it is not that I would vie with blade points to drive off a foe.