Lu Tong and the Seven Bowls


 

(samples from Ichigo Trading and Travel Tea Company - World Tea Expo 2019)


Lu Tong (790-835) was a Tang Dynasty Chinese poet as well as a scholar of the Tea Culture. Here is one of his more familiar poems - The Seven Bowls of Tea:

LU TONG'S SEVEN BOWLS OF TEA 七碗诗 卢仝（唐. 790~835)

The first bowl moistens my lips and throat; 一碗喉吻潤，

The second bowl breaks my loneliness; 二碗破孤悶，

The third bowl searches my barren entrails but to find 三碗搜枯腸，
Therein some five thousand scrolls; 惟有文字五千卷，

The fourth bowl raises a slight perspiration 四碗發輕汗，
And all life's inequities pass out through my pores; 平生不平事盡向毛孔散，

The fifth bowl purifies my flesh and bones; 五碗肌骨清，

The sixth bowl calls me to the immortals. 六碗通仙靈，

The seventh bowl could not be drunk, 七碗吃不得也，
only the breath of the cool wind raises in my sleeves. 唯覺兩腋習習清風生。

Where is Penglai Island, Yuchuanzi wishes to ride on this sweet breeze and go back. 蓬萊山﹐在何處，玉川子乘此清風欲歸去。

(translation by Steven R. Jones 2008 - from World Tea Academy)



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