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In Praise of the Crab, Li Zhenbai or Zhu Zhenbai
Cicada eyes, a tortoise body, legs like a spider,
Never facing you straight on while hurrying off—
And now he’s food displayed upon a banquet tray:
So this disorder’s left the rivers-and-lakes, or no?
咏蟹
蝉眼龟形脚似蛛，
未曾正面向人趋。
如今飣在盘筵上，
得似江湖乱走无。
Same author as the previous poem, from the same CTP book of comic poems. According to one note (not in my base text hmph), this was improvised, when challenged by another guest, at a banquet celebrating a naval commander putting down a revolt. Wordplay: a “disorder of the rivers and lakes” is both the anatomical mishmash that is the aquatic crab, and civil disorder among the populace—IOW, the poet is roasting the guest of honor.
---L.
Never facing you straight on while hurrying off—
And now he’s food displayed upon a banquet tray:
So this disorder’s left the rivers-and-lakes, or no?
咏蟹
蝉眼龟形脚似蛛，
未曾正面向人趋。
如今飣在盘筵上，
得似江湖乱走无。
Same author as the previous poem, from the same CTP book of comic poems. According to one note (not in my base text hmph), this was improvised, when challenged by another guest, at a banquet celebrating a naval commander putting down a revolt. Wordplay: a “disorder of the rivers and lakes” is both the anatomical mishmash that is the aquatic crab, and civil disorder among the populace—IOW, the poet is roasting the guest of honor.
---L.
no subject
no subject