From Red Pine’s translation of Stonehouse’s (Shiwu) Mountain Poems – poem 142.
Parched wheat and pine pollen make a fine meal
vine flowers and salted bamboo make a tasty dish
when I’m exhausted I think of nothing else
let others become buddha or immortals
I also very much enjoy Red Pine’s commentary and chose this poem out of a handful of similar ones mainly for his sideline contribution. He is entirely non-traditional – at least for western philology – but utterly charming.
Pine pollen is collected in late spring or early summer. “Vine flowers” refers to wisteria blossoms, which are removed individually from each raceme and stir-fried. At the monastery in Taiwan where I lived for several years, we dined through the summer on stir-fried daylily blossoms, picked a day or two before they were due to open. Among the mountain-dwelling Aini in Yunnan province, I also enjoyed stir-fried bauhinia flowers.
Extracts 