Utter Hopelessness

 
一年又復一年少 came to me unexpectedly. I tried make this into a couplet and couldn’t. Nor could I come up with an appropriate theme for a poem. Morpheus did not bring Erato to me. All I had for a first line was something like 小時花舞歌.

The following day while I was jogging and getting caught in the drizzle, I was able to add 江口舟來江口去 and the rest of the theme came easily.  However, after many revisions and refinements...

1 絲竹歌舞常樂醉 Strings and reeds; song and dance, often in inebriated joy,
2 舊時春光無限取 In days of old when unlimited radiance of spring to draw upon.
3 今夜水冷月更寒 Tonight’s water is piercing but the moon is even colder,
4 琵琶聲歇雲烟淚 The notes of the lute had stopped as tears a plentiful.

5 江頭已別江頭遠 Far and distant is the river’s mouth, once a fare thee well is made,
6 一年度盡一年去 A year spent is a year of no return.
7 豈宜借問廣寒兔 Would it be appropriate to ask the Rabbit in the Palace of the Great Cold,
8 嫦娥何得迎新歲 How can the Goddess of the Moon greet the New Year?

1 “Strings and reeds” – musical instruments, i.e., music. 長 is more difficult for me to write with a brush.

2春光 can mean scenes of springtime or implies an indication of a love affair.

4 雲烟 can also mean ethereal or impermanence and in this context – tears over the ethereal past.

5 It is unclear the author is leaving or someone else is.

7 The Palace of the Great Cold is the name of the palace where the Goddess of the Moon resides with the Jade Rabbit, the Three Legged Toad and the Osmanthus Tree. This line is reminiscent of “豈宜重問後庭花”.

8 Waiting for the New Year is a time when there is hope for better things to come. However, this hope is illusory in the eyes of the Goddess of the moon because she is eternally alone.

Wednesday, March 10, 2020