Time Dreamt

Inspired by the first few characters in the first line while walking on a sunny day in Friendship Park. The place was quiet but the breeze was blowing quite strongly. The meadow-like path on the hill was flanked on one side by wild yellow flowers - a most Ghibli cel-like scene.

山靜無聲鳥
來風竹影搖
欲取千杯醉
莫見嬋娟笑

However, I  felt that it was too blah and mechanical while it was written out with a brush and the first line was rewritten as,

伴月亭空鳥無聲 

Since this requires a change in rhyming scheme; might as well go all the way…

1 鳥去聲盡亭寂寞 Lonely is a pavilion when birds are gone and all is quiet,
2 風來影飛寒心覺 Then came the winds and shadows flew - my heart in shudder.
3 人生總是夢一塲 Life in the end is but, time dreamt,
4 路傍金花天涯角 Golden flowers by the roadside going to the corner of the world’s edge.

1 When things are gone loneliness results,

2 Then there are things that come along and trouble abounds. Literally, "the heart grew cold".

4 The road refers to the long journey of life - measured not in the number of years lived but the perception of time going fast or slow depending on one's state of happiness or sorrow. Temporal desires are short-lived.

Thursday, February 17, 2022