[updated October 2022]
A Four-Line Poetic Reply to Military Aide Zheng, Asking Me For Some of My Green Tangerines
答 郑 骑 曹 青 橘 绝 句
怜 君 卧 病 思 新 橘
试 摘 犹 酸 亦 未 黄。 书 后 欲 题 三 百 颗
洞 庭 须 待 满 林 霜。
Da Zheng Qi Cao Qing Ju Jue Ju
Lian jun wo bing si xin ju
Shi zhai you suan yi wei huang. Shu hou yu ti san bai ke
Dong ting xu dai man lin shuang.
A Four-Line Poetic Reply to Military Aide Zheng, Asking Me For Some of My Green Tangerines
Sympathize with you, in bed sick, thinking of fresh tangerines
I try to test one, but it still sour, and not yet yellow. Wang Xishi wrote about her having three hundred of them
But I am in the Dongting Lake area, we have to wait until the frosts fill the grove.
Notes:
Wang Xishi: (506 BC-?) Famous as one of the most beautiful women in Chinese history.
Dongting Lake area: Located in northeast Hunan and flood basin of the Changjiang. (Yangzi River)