Buddhist Monk Jumps The Wall (佛跳墙）

Introduce a Chinese Vegetarian Dish

Buddhist Monk Jumps The Wall (佛跳墙）
( a vegetarian dish that lures the most disciplined )

Next door to a brothel
A Buddhist temple closes its doors
Separated by the mud wall
Monks read on their straw pads
Flower girls ready for the night

Under the bamboo shadow
When the moon is low
A pot of vegetables
Smell better than the meat stew
Tofu cuts and bamboo shots
Mushroom pieces and water chestnuts

A stew is slowly cooking
Over a fire attended by the girls
The smell flows wide and low
Wakes up the clean-shaven monk
Who is numb on the toe.

The flower girls set the table
Temptation lies beyond the wall
A dish of earthly lure
A dish to the heavenly poor

The monk gets up from his station
Sucking in his tongue
As light as a hungry cat
He jumps up the wall
All his years of self enlightening
Came undone in just one blinking

Should the monk jumps the wall
Should the monk attempts the fall
Should flower girls welcome him
Should the monk tastes the earthly lure.


The dish is a forbidden delight
The fall is a forbidden plight
Buddhist monk takes the fall
Buddhist monk jumps the wall.

Buddhist monk jumps the wall
For a dish of the earthly lure
Buddhist monk jumps the wall
For a dish to the heavenly poor.