Moonlight has been streaming in through my bedroom window these past few nights.
Not surprising since the moon was full on Sunday.
Li Bai saw that same light too, one quiet long ago night.
What he wrote then echoes in the recesses of my mind, a fragment from a dimly remembered childhood.
My parents had recited it in Cantonese.
Might Li Bai have done it in Mandarin?
Jing(4) Ye(4) Si(1)
Chuang(2) qian(2) ming(2) yue(4) guang(1)
Yi(2) shi(4) di(4) shang(4) shuang(1)
Ju(3) tou(2) wang(4) ming(2) yue(4)
Di(1) tou(2) si(1) gu(4) xiang(1)
The bright moonlight before Li Bai's bed had looked like frost.
As he looked up, he saw only the bright moon. Looking down, he found himself drowning in a longing for home.
But how do you go home when home is long ago and far away and the people who made it home are no longer there.
Might food be the way?
Take a bowl; add some soya sauce and warm lard. Break an egg into the bowl. Fill it with hot rice. Mix.
Savour the fragrance.
Take a bite.
Home.
4 comments:
wah... moon rice... now you are making me hungry...
Mmm, when he surveyed the frost, it reminds him of the rice his mother used to cook for him, san the fragrance. Hence, his longing for home.
1. Who wrote this interesting, but excellent poem?
2. Is it officially copy righted, yet?
3. Has the poet considered putting it on poetrysoup.com, or entering it in contests, at allpoetry.com? I highly recommend it! I wouldn't mind having permission to use it in a book. www.cooking-recipes.co.uk/acatalog/Traditional_Recipes
Dear Anonymous
The poem was written by a Tang Dynasty poet, Li Bai who lived from 701 to 762. Most Chinese would have learnt this poem as children from their parents. I am sure Li Bai wouldn't mind if you quoted it in your book. By the way, the numbers in brackets refer to the tone of each word as spoken in Mandarin.
Also the url you gave for recipes.co doesn't work.
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