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Within the forest, sad for the end of spring—
I part my blinds to look at the flowering things
When suddenly I meet a bluebird envoy
Inviting me to visit Red Pine’s house.
The pellet furnace now begins to burn,
Immortal peaches truly flower forth.
It seems you can preserve a childlike face—
Could I regret I’m drunk on Drifting Clouds?
清明日宴梅道士房
林卧愁春尽，
开轩览物华。
忽逢青鸟使，
邀入赤松家。
丹灶初开火，
仙桃正发花。
童颜若可驻，
何惜醉流霞。
This one’s too deep into Daoist lore to avoid a heaping pile of end-notes. The Tomb-Sweeping Festival (a.k.a. Qing Ming = “pure brightness”) falls on April 5 give or take a day (it’s a solar rather than lunisolar festival). I’m not clear on its relevance, and some versions of the poem don’t mention the occasion. A bluebird was the traditional envoy of the Queen Mother of the West, as when she supposedly visited Han Emperor Wu, giving him some of her peaches of immortality. Red Pine was a legendary Daoist immortal—related to which, a pellet furnace was an alchemical tool for creating and refining elixirs, and Drifting Clouds (sometimes translated as Rosy Drift) is a of Daoist immortals.
---L.
I part my blinds to look at the flowering things
When suddenly I meet a bluebird envoy
Inviting me to visit Red Pine’s house.
The pellet furnace now begins to burn,
Immortal peaches truly flower forth.
It seems you can preserve a childlike face—
Could I regret I’m drunk on Drifting Clouds?
清明日宴梅道士房
林卧愁春尽，
开轩览物华。
忽逢青鸟使，
邀入赤松家。
丹灶初开火，
仙桃正发花。
童颜若可驻，
何惜醉流霞。
This one’s too deep into Daoist lore to avoid a heaping pile of end-notes. The Tomb-Sweeping Festival (a.k.a. Qing Ming = “pure brightness”) falls on April 5 give or take a day (it’s a solar rather than lunisolar festival). I’m not clear on its relevance, and some versions of the poem don’t mention the occasion. A bluebird was the traditional envoy of the Queen Mother of the West, as when she supposedly visited Han Emperor Wu, giving him some of her peaches of immortality. Red Pine was a legendary Daoist immortal—related to which, a pellet furnace was an alchemical tool for creating and refining elixirs, and Drifting Clouds (sometimes translated as Rosy Drift) is a of Daoist immortals.
---L.