Chicken Stew

Tondo Chicken, made with an app.

Tu Fu      712-770

Ch'iang Village  
[2]

Flocks of chickens clucking from every corner, 
They fight each other as visitors arrive. 
After I chase the chickens up the tree,
I could hear the knocks at the wicket gate.
Elders of the village, four or five, 
Came to ask me about my long journey.
Each carrying something in his hand,
They pour out jugs of good and poor wine.
"Hope you won't mind if the wine tastes too weak:
No one has been able to attend to farming.
And since we're still in the midst of battles,
All our children have gone to the eastern front."
Then I ask to sing to the elders a song;
In these hard times, I'm deeply moved by their affection.
Singing done, I look up to the heavens and sigh,
And tears stream down the cheeks of all who sit around.

Tu Fu, translation by Irving Y. Lo from Sunflower Splendor; Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry, edited by Wu-chi Liu and Irving Yucheng Lo, Anchor Books, 1975, page 121.

In Bali, he showed me this handsome bird.

I made this Polaroid fake from a digital photo of ranging fowl at the Farnworth Farm,