XI'AN, May 28 (Xinhua) -- American poet Jane Hirshfield gulped down a cup
of liquor that floated toward her on a lotus-shaped wooden plate, and improvised
a lyric in line with a centuries-old Chinese tradition.
"A lake's water does not carry last year's poems; a boat's hull does not
travel last year's waves," she read out the lines Tuesday at a national poetry
festival in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
The eager crowd of 130 poetry lovers cheered and clapped as an interpreter
put the lines into Chinese.
The award-winning poet, whose works are rarely read in China, instantly
became the star of the tri-annual gathering, sponsored by the Ministry of
Culture, Chinese Writers' Association and the Shaanxi Provincial Government.
Amateur Chinese poet Guan Zhongbin timidly invited her for a photo
together.
"I really admire her," said the 31-year-old from the neighboring Gansu
Province. He waited until the end of the game but that lotus plate never came
near him, so he never had a chance to improvise a poem.
"In ancient times, only scholars who stood out in imperial exams had such
honor," said Guan.
Xi'an served as China's capital in 13 dynasties, from Western Zhou (1134 to
771 BC) to Tang Dynasty (618 to 907). It was a custom in history for the
emperors to treat outstanding scholars to feasts by the Qujiang Lake, which has
now been renovated into a holiday resort in the southeast of Xi'an.
The climax of such a feast was the lotus-floating drinks, and whoever got
the drink had to improvise a poem.
More than 1,000 years after the collapse of Tang Dynasty, the golden period
that left behind nearly 50,000 well-written poems, poets from across the country
still take pride in improvising poems while drinking liquor by the Qujiang Lake.
Unlike Hirshfield, who got her bachelor's degree from Princeton University and later studied at San Francisco Zen Center, Guan was forced to quit school at 15 because his impoverished farming family could not afford his higher education.
