孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
伤哉行
A Distressing Business
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众毒蔓贞松 一枝难久荣 岂知黄庭客 仙骨生不成 |
Many are poisoned as the quest for long life spreads. One branch of this calamity has long flourished. Who could know that a guest of the Yellow Chamber Would fail to acquire an immortal spirit? |
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春色舍芳蕙 秋风绕枯茎 弹琴不成曲 始觉知音倾 |
His cheerful countenance lost its fragrant beauty. Autumn winds coiled about his withered limbs. He couid no longer play a tune upon his lute As he began to realize the onset of his destruction. |
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馆月改旧照 吊宾写馀情 还舟空江上 波浪送铭旌 |
The moon above this inn shines with a new light, as a Mournful guest writes out his final feelings. Returning boats, empty upon the river, let the Waves deliver the banners of the deceased. |
-- 孟郊
废话
I believe Meng Jiao has lost a friend to the quest for immortality. The Yellow Chamber is a very old Daoist scripture of alchemy. And this primitive alchemy was based upon those ingredients which visibly changed when heated: sulfur, lead, mercury. Tasty and expeditious, like Lake Woebegone biscuits. Bai Juyi once, according to his poem, did a little immortal cookery once. But he chickened out when it came time to eat the results. Good for him. More than one Tang emperor died as a result of eating this concoction of poisons. And crazy Daoists, out in the woods, died with no one to mourn them. At least this one crazy Daoist had a mourner who by art, and not science, achieved immortality.