Fun with the Kids: Wild Berries
COOL POEMS: Introduction > THE POEMS
Topic: Fun with the Kids Author: Fan Chengda (1126-1191)
Wild Berries
Downy spikes, fragrant, soft, slowly wrap around; Wild berries, sweet and sour, faintly painted red. I pick and pick, then go back home; sons and daughters laugh, Seeing the basket dangling at the end of my long staff.
Comments: Fan Chengda apparently was unaware of Western conceptions of stern Confucian fatherhood for, in writing this poem, he must have assumed that his readers would both understand and approve of the family scene portrayed. As with many Chinese poems, this one begins with a “scene” (jing) and winds up with an emotion or qing. in this case a kind of National Geographic-style macro-shot of wild berries with their downy spikes, their color, texture, fragrance, and manner of growth all described in detail. Most important of course is their sweet and sour flavor, which propels the plot of this little vingette. Fan can describe the berries in such detail only because he has labored long picking them, and for what? That is the qing end of the equation. We learn he has picked the berries so he can enjoy the spontaneous smiles of his sons and daughters (both sexes are listed) as he dangles the basket of berries he picked just for them.
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