Explore "The Feast of Go Nien" by Thomas Burke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
We are now in the Pepper Month; / And soon will come the Feast of Go Nien. / Then I will pay my debts, and gather in my dues. / I will walk in the great procession; / And afterwards I will hang up my devil-chasers / And will proceed to the restaurant of Ng Tack, / And drink spring wine with him and meet my friends.
That evening I shall eat of the best: / Of chicken cream and pigeon in soy-ed, / With a brown noodle of pork and prawn, / And a curry of fish and a large Chung Goun, / Sweet onions, and black eggs and chow chow. / And when we have done, / We will have cakes and tea, and music and songs, / And call in our white friends to sit with us.
For this one day we shall be each to the other, / What the other would desire. / Perhaps it is well that this day / Occurs but once in the year's calendar; / For if we always so behaved, one to the other, / There would be no business done.