My reading group often engages in a reader exercises that range from writing poems to translating couplets. Tickled by this out-of-the-routine demand, some of us indulge happily. The latest had a surprising result for tea lovers. Inspired by a poem that listed out the poet’s favourite things, readers were asked to do the same.
An image that found itself favoured was of a cup of tea or just tea. Tea was an eloquent subject in classic Chinese and Japanese poetry. Lu Tong’s ‘Song of Seven Cups’ written during the Tang period is well known. One bowl moistens the lips and throat…
Sen Rikyu’s verse deals with philosophy of tea. The original purpose of Tea has at its core the acceptance of the insufficient.
In the 17th Century when tea began its foray into Europe, it entered into the writings of its poets too; they glorified it for its magical properties and its exotic aura. William Cowper’s (1731-1800) lines are only too well loved:
And the cups
That cheer but not inebriate wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
But as tea became common and its magic wore out, it fell from the high pedestal of celebration. Tea imagery is rare in 20th-Century verse. I chanced upon American-Taiwanese writer Dominic Cheung’s Love Lyrics on Tea . It dispelled all notions, though, that tea was down in the pecking order for poets. Three thousand years after it was discovered, it remains as tantalising as before.
If I were boiling water
And you were tea leaves,
Then all your fragrance would depend
Upon my lack of taste…
