搜索枯肠 [- - kū chánɡ]rack [ransack] one's brains (for fresh ideas or apt expressions); beat [cudgel] one's brains; rack one's brains (to do ...); scratch through one's mind for sth. — a self-depreciatory phrase of a man of letters; think hard:
•¶ 我搜索枯肠做了几句诗， 恐怕过于平淡， 不配在你们刊物上发表。 I have ground out some verses, which, I'm afraid, are too mediocre to appear in your publication.