薛涛诗
Poems of Xue Tao
Index
宣上人见示与诸公唱和
I announce that we will look at something and then all the gentlemen must compose a poem to chant.
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许厕高斋唱 涓泉定不如 可怜谯记室 流水满禅居 |
Let us mingle our high pious voices Even if they are inferior to this tiny stream. Have pity, do not blame your secretary, but Let flowing water fill this meditation hall. |
-- 薛涛
废话
Another entertainment poem for a company of men. Let us first note that these "average men" will all be able to compose their challenge poems. Some will even do so according to the laws of regulated verse. Those who can't do that know their own shortcomings. I say all this lest you come away feeling superior to Xue Tao's audience.
Xue Tao is being amusing at a gathering that takes place at a Buddhist temple. A tiny stream runs nearby. She begins with the "Let us mingle" which is a pun on "let's go pee" when there are any number of "let us join together" which would suffice. The "tiny stream" and "secretary" refer to her. The "flowing water" to the gentlemen. And so she puts them in a light and willing mood to participate in a game of poems. Try this at your next social gathering.
Just in case you are still feeling superior, there was once a game in Afghanistan played among the common people. One person quotes a line from the poems of Rumi, who was an Afghan exiled into present day Turkey, and someone else either quoted the next line or a line clearly related to the first line, thereby changing the poem.
The ability to play with culture is a sign that you have one.