Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Posted by 醉茶生 at 09:53 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

Bái Jūyì 白居易 (772—846) was a poet of the late Tang dynasty. He is considered one of the most accessible of the Tang Dynasty poets.

Juyi had a strong sense of social responsibility and many of his poems deal with poverty and the plight of the common people, while satirizing the government and ruling classes of his day. His career was initially very successful: he was made a scholar of the Hanlin Academy (翰林學士) and Reminder of the Left (左赞善大夫), but lost favour for remonstrating too forcefully and was exiled from the capital to become Minister for Works of Jiangzhou (江州司馬). In his later years, he became an admirer of Buddhism (at that time a new religion) and is therefore sometimes known as the “Buddha of Poetry” (詩佛). He insisted on using only simple language, and it was said that even “old women could understand” 「老嫗能解」 his poetry. His most famous work is the long narrative poem, The Song of Eternal Sorrow 《长恨歌》, which tells the story of Yang Guifei, the ill-fated Imperial concubine.

Juyi wrote the poem 《山泉煎茶有懷》about the pleasures of drinking tea made using water from a mountain stream.

坐酌泠泠水﹐
zuò zhuó lěng lěng shuǐ
I sit pouring the cold cold water.

看煎瑟瑟塵。
kàn jiān sè sè chén
I see the wind stirring the dust.

無由持一碗﹐
wú yóu chǐ yī wǎn
There is nothing like holding a cup

寄與愛茶人。
jì yù ài chá rén
of tea sent to a tea lover.

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