Eating Lychee at Huizhou
Chinese original: Su Shi (11th AC, social name 'Zizhan', art name 'Dongpo')
English translation & annotation: Julia Min (Jan. 2025)
It is a world of spring for all seasons,
Where loquat and bayberries swell in turn.
I could ate hundreds of lichees as day food,
And live in the south at Mt Luofu for good.
Analysis:
Nothing in life seems able to torture Su Shi long enough before he could find solace in food. When he was finally released from prison and banished to Huangzhou during Chinese New Year in 1080, he wrote:
“Oh well, the Yangtse embraces the town in a loop,
Where the river fish should taste just as good.
There are also bamboo groves over the hills,
Where I should find many sweet and earthy shoots.”
Now he was banished even further to Huizhou near the southern border in 1094. Such penalty was generally regarded as a death sentence. Yet, the 57-year-old Dongpo revived again, enjoying fresh local produce that could make some people in the capital very jealous. Lychee fruit had been a popular hint of royal luxury ever since the story about the royal consort Yang, Yuhuan of the Tang Dynasty was exposed in poetry.
What can you do to a great mind like Su Shi? As a result, his opponent party in power was at their wits’ end towards his increasing popularity and influence among the gentle society with his great spirit, his sense of intellectual humour, and of course, his artistic works among which poems and prose went off like fire across the country. In fact, they became so jealous of him, they banished him to the ‘End of World’ – Hainan Island, hoping to silence him once for all.
Judging from the situation, he could indeed wrote it for his readers in middle land, or more precisely, the Emperor, reporting his life from thousands of miles away. The last two lines have become famous quotations, where many commented that he showed a strong Daoist desire for a country life like the great poet Tao Yuanmin.
食荔枝
原作: 苏轼（字子瞻, 号东坡居士; 11世纪北宋）
罗浮山下四时春，卢橘杨梅次第新。
日啖荔枝三百颗，不辞长作岭南人。
Comments