孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
酒德
Wine's Virtues
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酒是古明镜 辗开小人心 醉见异举止 醉闻异声音 |
Wine is the ancients' bright mirror And it exposes the scoundrel's heart. The drunk see in a different manner. The drunk hear different sounds. |
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酒功如此多 酒屈亦以深 罪人免罪酒 如此可为箴 |
Wine's merits go beyond these. Wine subdues and makes profound. The guilty try to blame the drink. Let this poem be their admonishment. |
-- 孟郊
废话
The "bright mirror" is that which leads to the realization of the truth. Lakes and other shiny things are used as metaphors for this in Tang poetry. While 酒 is usually translated as "wine," it is actually "liqueur." Until the monopolies clamped down on it through their lawmakers, liqueur production was common in France. Stills on the back of trucks drove around the countryside, converting the last of the fruit into a myriad of heady drinks. The Chinese raised this to a highly refined tradition and the varieties of "wine" were mind-boggling, even before you drank them. And they ran the spectrum from mildly intoxicating to near blindness-inducing.