Shepherd's Purse

People call shepherd's-purse food of poverty,
think it's shameful. But I call it a rare treat.

I've watched families gather shepherd's-purse.
They start at National Gate and head south:

carrying lean iron knives, blades rust-eaten,
frost-battered baskets of azure-green bamboo,

they go plodding out, deep into frozen land,
and scrape around there for roots and leaves.
 
Hands so raw they can't feed themselves, they
live in hunger, and you are ashamed to eat it?

Dining on juicy lamb and red-tailed fish, fine
fragrant meats -- that's, that's what poverty is.

--Mei Yao Ch'En
(1002 to1060)
translated by David Hinton