Day10 The Gay Genius C11

Words and expressions

1. Su knew the old priest well and felt a devilish urge to bring the woman in and break his monastic rules.

devilish: highly, extremely

仿写: It is devilishly painful.

2. Invariably also, like modern cabaret artists, the poets preferred to sing of heartbreak and the pangs of love and the longing of the unrequited lover.

unrequited: not returned in kind, unpaid

仿写: Parents's love to their children is unrequited.

3. Nevertheless, the references to a girl now married and become a mother are unmistakable, and there was no reason why in a poem on peonies he should make two clear references to belated courtship.

belated: happening or arriving late

仿写: The statement was a belated acknowledgement that the project had not been a success.

Reflection

Su Tungpo and West Lake make a perfect combination in mood, vagrant charm and love and laughter. The poetry of the region and the poetry of the poet found in each other a perfect expression.

Su Tungpo was too complex a character, too many-sided, to be understood easily.

He was a poet of nature, with that peculiar wholesome mystic view o£ life which is always associated with a deep and true understanding of nature.