Poem

You consider my dream yesterday weired ? Not at all.

On a second thought, the Chinese man who should be most thankful for not being awarded with the Nobel Prize should be Lao She (老舍). (Well, he did not get the prize because the Nobel Prize committee only came to know that the famous Chinese writer had already drowned himself by the time they decided to give him the long deserved award. As you know, the prize is only meant for living people.)

Alas, if our great novelist did get the prize, he would certainly be asked to follow the footsteps of Cao Zhi (曹植) and demonstrate how to write a poem in seven paces: by the overjoyed audience or the Red Guards - who could tell ? And is there any difference ?

PS. Although the poem on bean and beanstalk is all too famous, our ancient giant of literature actually wrote two poems within seven paces each. Here is the other one:

兩肉齊道行，頭上帶凹骨。
相遇凸山下，欻起相搪突。
二敵不俱剛，一肉臥土窟。
非是力不如，盛氣不泄畢。

Don't be taken aback if you do not understand, Cao Pi (曹丕) didn't either. Otherwise there would not be the second one !