Yellow Pepper

Yellow pepper

Red pepper

I love your shine

Lighting up my kitchen table

From the breakfast bowl

Beginning with no explanation

Rushing to a messy end

Newly-derailed flavours

Leave behind such joy

You are a lovely tapestry

You are a small town in the rain

I’m grateful you came so far

Came into my menu to play

In a thick, rich fish soup

Emitting your aroma

Eaten with an ordinary cheese

Adding leaping colours

You are my daily fare

You are a city with hot springs

A hometown excelling in embroidery

You are a big single-span bridge

Music’s shattered completeness

You borrow the violin’s shoulder

To steal a long view from the castle’s round window

Could be comic but never mediocre

You are last night’s warm bed    

Just able to contain new imaginings 

Growing up with the sea winds blowing

Your heart may have been warmed

Body a proud lantern

You are a dancing puppet

A farmer singing opera

You’re a real character

But you’re never pungent

You are a child in poverty

But you’re never shabby

In a pot of thick, rich beef stew

Each gladdening slice refreshes

You are a naughty soprano

From the tangle of plant connections

Showing your own crisp smile

Yellow pepper

Red pepper

I will always stand by you

A flavour that defies mediocrity

Translated by Brian Holton in 1998

Original poem published in a.m. post, May 2005. © Betty YY Ng