Lu Tung: Tea Poem
In a similar vein to my previous quotes post I’ve found a poem by a Chinese gent by the name of Lu T’ung who’s titled this piece: “Tea Drinking”. Here’s the full text and I’m sure you’ll agree with his sentiments.
Tea Drinking
The first cup moistens my lips and throat;
The second cup breaks my loneliness;
The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes
of odd ideographs;The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores; At the fifth cup I am purified;
The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals.
The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves.
Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.
Lu T’ung
[Update]: It turns out – after some research – that Lu Tung was a Tang dynasty poet who was more famous for his love of tea than he was his poetry! Sounds like a wise man indeed if you ask me.
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“Elysium”??!