Sourness
Is an enduring invocation
A primal keeness to food
Of an old civilization
Fermentation, fervere
To seethe.
Sourness, leading the taste of spring
In the cosmology of Chinese medicine
The four directions in order
The five tastes find home
Sour rests in the east, draws on spring’s wood
Upward, thrust into life
Saying,
In the springtime
All over, the hills covered with azaleas
Amidst the clustered peaks of Yunnan-Guizhou Highland
The Bouyei people, in the drifting mist of sourness[1]
Unfold the vastness and abundance of land
It may be fresh fruit juice,
Or malt.
At times,
Buckwheat ash and sorghum porridge
Such things once noted in the Anecdotes from the Fiery Frontier.[2]
Time, light, and air
Tenderly draw out the sap.
In that hour:
Endless days, cicada-hum, the pine wind
Heaven and earth, luminous and clear
Through the world its vital breath
Brimming.
Six o’clock.
Women in the fields
Soil loosened by the hoe,
The long furrows from the ox's path,
Ash from last night's fire,
Woods wreathed in haze
The names of wild greens at the village market
Spoken only in the local tongue.
When to eat them,
How best to prepare them,
Are etched in shared memory,
Rooted in that land.
The art of fermenting sourness,
Taught mother to daughter,
Line by line,
mouth to ear.
A resonance between the senses and the seasons.
Raindrops fall on the ridged fields.
As flavor ripens, slowly.
How long has it been?
Today, I tried to reach that green apricot.
Its tartness, lucid and lingering
Still unripe.
So, too, is a person.
We carry that flavor
as we fly, as we migrate.
Note:
That day, I happened to read an article about the lives of mountain people on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. It made me think of our own lives in the city, cramped and rushed. The food we buy from the supermarket has become the main way most of us trace the origins of what we eat.
I suddenly felt I had wasted so much time chasing fame and gain.Yet helplessly, I know the surging tides of ambition will keep pushing me forward. Now, to return to the land feels like such a luxury, and yet, that kind of longing is something I can no longer ignore.
[1] The Bouyei, primarily residing in Guizhou Province, have a rich tradition of agriculture and cuisine, often characterized by sour flavors.
[2] Anecdotes from the Fiery Frontie is a collection of notes and observations on lives and affairs of Southern China around 400 years ago.
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