Symbolism Of A Verse From A Chinese Poem I'm trying to translate a poem with the title &quot;Plum In The Basket&quot;. The subject matter of most of the poem revolves around eating plums and plum wine, but the opening line, key to understanding the poem's overall theme, is this:
&quot;闲而生懒，懒生肉&quot;
Currently, I've translated this verse as &quot;Leisure and the onset of sloth, the sloth of raw meat.&quot;
I feel like I'm missing a bit of symbolic nuance in the phrases &quot;懒&quot; and &quot;生肉&quot; that might be more obvious to experienced Chinese translators. Am I on the right track? Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.
闲 - idle
而 - therefore
生 - create/ grow
懒 - lazy
懒 - lazy
生 - grow /create
肉 - flesh/ meat

&quot;闲而生懒，懒生肉&quot; = &quot;Idleness grows laziness, laziness
(makes you) grows flesh&quot;

'grow flesh' is a polite way to say 'become fat'