Sima Muyang

During the Jerusalem artichoke season, during the sleepy summer months, the cicada sits on the tree, beating its wings and shrieking. At this time, the goats are the fattest and the wine is the sweetest; the women are the most wanton and the men are the weakest. At that time Sirius was baking people's heads and knees, and the skin was hot and dry. At this time I longed for a shade of rock, a glass of wine from Biblinos, a piece of cheese, and the milk of an old goat, the meat of a heifer that had grazed in the forest before she had given birth, and the meat of a newborn goat. I would like to sit under the shade and drink wine, contented with these delicacies; similarly, I would like to face the fresh west wind and drink three times the libation and the fourth libation from the clean spring water that always flows.