Bring in the Wine

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Image Credit: jazz3311 / Shutterstock.com


It's that time of the day again. I've just prepared a pot of food; leftover lamb, mixed beans and tomatoes, spiced with Kashmiri Chilli, green chillis, cumin and cardomom, with fresh basil and dried oregano in the herb department, plenty of salt and pepper - it's just cooking out and awaits final seasoning with lemon juice. We'll have it with spiced cous-cous in a while...In the meantime, I've a glass of wine to enjoy, so here's a poem from China, from the late T'ang period. Seems somehow appropriate (well to me, anyway).


Bring in the Wine - Li Ho (791-817)

A glass goblet
Deep-tinted amber, Crimson pearls drip from the wine-cask,
Boiling dragon and roasting phoenix weep jades of fat.
Silken screens and embroidered curtains close in the
    scented breeze.
         Blow the dragon flute,
         Beat the lizard-skin drum.
         White teeth sing,
         Slender waists dance.
More than ever now, as the green spring nears its
     evening,
And peach flowers scatter like crimson rain!
Be advised by me, stay drunken all your life:
Wine does not reach the earth on Liu Ling's grave.

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