A Song of Drinking Tea on the Departure of Zheng Rong
Hulu jushi fanyi
Dedicated to Sylvia and Matthew London for their friendship and generosity
Jiaoran of the Tang dynasty
A Song of Drinking Tea on the Departure of Zheng Rong
The immortal Danqiu abandoned eating jade elixirs,
Picking tea instead, he drank, and grew feathered wings.
The world is unaware of the Mansion of Eminent and Hidden Immortals,
People do not know of the Palace of Transmuting Bone into Clouds.
The Lad of Cloudy Mountain blended it in a gold cauldron;
How hollow the fame of the Man of Chu and his Book of Tea!
Late on a frosty night, breaking cakes of fragrant tea.
Brewed to overflowing, the pale yellow froth; I sip and am reborn.
Bestowed by the gentleman, this tea dispels my suffering,
Cleansing my mind from worry and fear.
Come morning, the emotions of the fragrant brazier remain.
Intoxicated still, we walk across the clouds reflected in Tiger Stream;
In high song, I send the gentleman off.
唐 晈然
飲茶歌送鄭容
丹丘羽人輕玉食
採茶飲之生羽翼
名藏仙府世空知
骨化雲宮人不識
雲山童子調金鐺
楚人茶經虛得名
霜天半夜芳草折
爛漫緗花啜又生
賞君此茶祛我疾
使人胸中蕩憂栗
日上香爐情未畢
醉踏虎溪雲
高歌送君出
Note
For this and other Chinese tea poems, see the forthcoming
THE SPIRIT OF TEA: An Offering To Tea Lovers
a book of photography by Matthew London
Tiger Spring Press, 2014
or go to www.spiritoftea.org
Source
Jiaoran 晈然 (730-799 A.D.), “Yincha ge sung Zheng Rong 飲茶歌送鄭容 (A Song of Drinking Tea on the Departure of Zheng Rong) in Cao Yin 曹寅 (1658-1712 A.D.) and Peng Dingqiu 彭定求 (1645-1719 A.D.) et al., comps, Qüan Tangshi 全唐詩 (Complete Poetry of the Tang Dynasty, 1705), ch. 821, no. 13.