Ye Zhou 叶舟

• The Southern Tea Traders  |  南方来的茶叶商
• The Sheep Come to Town  |  入城的羊群
• On The Road  |  在路上
• Stubborn Body Heat  |  坚持的体温

Ren Xianqing 任先青

• Qu Yuan, the Poet  |  屈原
• On Sundays  |  星期天
• The Setting Sun  |  西望，落日

Peng Shibin 彭世彬

• Tea Creek  |  茶溪
• Shadows  |  阴影
• Paper Flowers  |  纸花

Liu Yali 刘亚丽

• Wednesday Afternoon Tea  |  星期三的下午茶
• The Flying Bed Sheet  |  飞翔的床单
• Winter Coal  |  白雪覆盖的煤堆

Mengye 梦也

• Pre-Dawn on the Balcony  |  黎明四点钟的阳台
• The Narrow Road  |  小路
• Your Native Home  |  你出生的地方
• Fava Bean Blossom  |  大豆开花

Jing Qiufeng 井秋峰

• Tea  |  茶
• Nightfall  |  傍晚
• The Shepherd  |  放羊人
• Learning about Love from Water  |  爱如水

Yuan Shiping 袁诗萍

• In the Shade of the Night  |  我在夜色里走
• My Cousin from the West End  |  西单表妹
• Eternal Sisterhood  |  金兰记

Liu Congmei 刘聪美

• The Legend of Morin Quur  |  马头琴

From 21st Century Chinese Poetry, No. 5

• The food and drink of Central Asia
• you think revolve around the smell of mutton –
•  
• Some tea traders have come from the south,
• bringing an earthy fragrance, an ancient puzzle.

— Ye Zhou, The Southern Tea Traders

• It's evident your words couldn't move the king
• even though the trickling river
• was able to play the chords of your heart.
• You finally turned back and morphed into a fish;
• that might be a blessing
• or did you just declare war?

— Ren Xianqing, Qu Yuan

• Those dainty paper flowers,
• each gives out a different fragrance;
• so lively and poised,
• ethereal and alluring.
• I hear bells, not from cats or dogs unrelated to me;
• it’s music, played by some human hand.
• What a surprise! I want to turn around.
• .
• I hear bells, not from cats or dogs unrelated to me;
• it’s music, played by some human hand.
• What a surprise! I want to turn around.

— Peng Shibin, Paper Flowers

• Spring Blossom Tea is kept in a tea-tin,
• until it loses all human touch.
• It is served at every single weekly meeting,
• meetings so serious they resemble
• newspaper text ‘set solid’.

— Liu Yali, Wednesday Afternoon Tea

• Sweet flowers of fava beans,
• they roll out a purple bed just for you.
•  
• All is for you, even in our tiny space of love.
• The bean field blooms into a violent sea
• in the loudest shout.

— Mengye, Fava Bean Blossom

• A white-out, a silvery frosty world,
• you and your sheep move like transient snow.
• No grass in sight for the flock and no road for you.

— Jing Qiufeng, The Shepherd

• I called her my temptress cousin,
• my tall-slender cousin.
• She quit school right after junior high
• and always called a tangerine a dangerine;
• any objection would only meet with
• her rolling eyes.

— Yuan Shiping, My Cousin from the West End

• Beside my mountain home, waiting for the moon to rise,
• I serve a cup of tea for my soul mate.

— Anonymous, Historic Tea Verses

• At the base of the tongue, every day, the taste of tea.
• Before the eyes, everywhere, poems to rescue.

— Zhang Kejiu (Yuan Dynasty), Historic Tea Verses

• Morin Quur, Morin Quur,
• melancholy soul,
• across the suffering grasslands
• your accusations roll.
• Where horses toil and teardrops boil,
• there comes an answering cry
• of outraged indignation,
• Poor Swift Wind, fly!

— Liu Congmei, The Legend of Morin Quur