Pekinese Rhymes/12

by Guido Vitale

XII

寒鴉兒寒鴉兒過
一遍打十個
熬着吃
煑着吃
剝了皮兒更好吃

NOTES

寒鴉兒 han² ya¹'r' is the Corvus monedula, a white breasted crow; a large number of them comes to Peking from the North, at the beginning of winter, and their first apparition is greeted by the Pekinese boys with these verses who are however too gastronomic to be sentimental. The flesh of these crows is eatable, but the taste for it is not general. 一遍 i¹ pien⁴, at one time. 剝 puo¹ is read vulgarly pao².

TRANSLATION

The white breasted crows, the white breasted crows are passing ― at one time we strike ten of them ― we eat them boiled in gravy ― we eat them boiled ― but they are even better to eat when the skin is taken off them.