Poetry Friday!

Welcome to Poetry Friday! It's my first time hosting, but I think after some initial scufflawing in the sandbox, Mr. Linky and I are now friends...

So... first some poetry and then the round-up!

There's this story that says during the Ming Dynasty, the scholar-official Zhao Mengfu wanted to take a concubine and wrote a poem to gauge his wife's reaction:

I'm a scholar-official
and you are the official wife.
Haven't you ever heard that scholar-official Wang had Peach Leaf and Peach Root,
Scholar-official Su had Morning Clouds and Evening Clouds?
Even if I marry a few beauties from Wu and Yue--it wouldn't be too much
since you're already over forty.
You'll still control Spring in the Jade Hall.

Zhao's wife, Guan Daosheng, wrote this poem in response:

You and I
have too much passion.
Where the passion is, is hot like fire
I knead a piece of clay into a you
and a me
then smash them
and mix them with water.
Again I knead it into a you
then a me.
There is you in my clay,
and me in your clay.
I'll share your quilt while we live
and your coffin after death.

He didn't take a concubine.

Both poems are from The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry: From Ancient to Contemporary, The Full 3000-Year Tradition ed. Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping

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