A Poor Scholar’s Ascent to the Clouds

A pen forged in the mud has gained a keen edge;

Wounds beneath a nobleman’s brocade robe are brewing a storm.

When a poor young man opens the door to the imperial examinations,

when man-eating truths crawl out from piles of old papers,

when thunder from the capital rumbles thousands of miles away

he stands by the river in Yongning, gripping his “Keep to Simplicity” inkstone.

This time, he will write more than his own fate.