Tea Poetry

I've been reading Drifting, a book of poetry by Dominic Cheung (Chang Ts'o). The book was awarded with Taiwan's prestigious literary award, the National Literature and Arts Prize in 1989. The poems have been translated to English by the author. The work is accessible, beautiful, and and filled with vivid imagery.

Tea is an important image in this book, and I'd like to share one of the more sensual poems with my fellow tea geeks.

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Love Poems of Tea

1
If I, the boiling water,
And you, the tea;
Then your fragrance
Has to depend solely upon my plainness.

2
Let your dryness inside me
Softly uncoil and stretch;
Let me dissolve
Imperceptibly, your tension.

3
I have to be hot, even boiled
Before we consume each other;
We have to hide, see and hold
each other in water
to decide
a tea color.

4
No matter how capriciously
you drift;
Gradually and slowly
(O' gently)
You will into me submerge--
Deep.

5
by that moment
the most bitter tear of yours
will become a best sip
of my fragrance.


Cheung, Dominic. Drifting. Green Integer: Los Angelos. 2000. p. 18.