East Pavillion Tea Gathering
- Poetry of Bao Junhui

《东亭茶宴》
East Pavillion Tea Gathering by Bao Junhui
中文原文( Chinese )

闲朝向晓出帘栊，茗宴东亭四望通。

远眺城池山色里，俯聆弦管水声中。

幽篁引沼新抽翠，芳槿低檐欲吐红。

坐久此中无限兴，更怜团扇起清风。

English Translation

Idle morning, close to dawn, we emerge from curtained cages.

Best young tea, East Pavillion, we gaze in all directions.

Looking down on moated walls and then on mountain scenes,

Below we hear the strings and flutes wrapped in river's voices.

Distant bamboo lines a pond like newly sprouted jade.

Fragrant hibiscus beneath the eaves makes me whisper, "pink."

Our desire, boundless, long to sit in the midst of here and now

Grows greater as our rounded fans stir up our own cool breeze.

Bao Junhui spent just over three months in the court of the Tang emperor Dezong (780 - 805) and then contrived successfully to go away. She could have asked for leave to care for her mother and then return. She left for good. We know little about Bao Junhui beyond her being a talented poet at an early age, her being called to court, and her return to her home. In spite of the apparent pleasures in the poem above, she didn't hesitate to return to her mother. Coming from a family that would be acceptable to the court, one might think that her mother would be well-off when the father died. But this is long, long before any sense of justice for women entered the world. When an official died, his salary died too. The poet Bai Juyi's father died while in imperial service and his mother was left penniless in the countryside. Bao Junhui's mother could very well have been living in a chicken- and milletless hut.

- Last updated: 2024-10-29 17:28:07
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Why Chinese poems is so special?
The most distinctive features of Chinese poetry are: concision- many poems are only four lines, and few are much longer than eight; ambiguity- number, tense and parts of speech are often undetermined, creating particularly rich interpretative possibilities; and structure- most poems follow quite strict formal patterns which have beauty in themselves as well as highlighting meaningful contrasts.
How to read a Chinese poem?
Like an English poem, but more so. Everything is there for a reason, so try to find that reason. Think about all the possible connotations, and be aware of the different possibilities of number and tense. Look for contrasts: within lines, between the lines of each couplet and between successive couplets. Above all, don't worry about what the poet meant- find your meaning.

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