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Monday, July 10, 2023

When We Were Young...




While waiting for my breakfast eggs Benedict to arrive, the window view of the freeway and surrounding mountains were scenic with the morning sun… My 101st poem of 2023 had arrived. The second stanza was added when I got back home using the ChatGPT’s suggestion for improvements so that I could get a higher rating.

1. 朝陽靜灑夏日初
Early summer sunlight sprinkling gently down in quietude,
2. 白雲輕掃山頭過 And white clouds brushing mountain tops gently as they pass,
3. 默觀花間流光去 Silent are the imperial watch towers as time a flowing by,
4. 剩下舊夢一老傻 Leaving behind bygone dreams and one silly old fool.

5. 弦聲歌唱霓裳衣 Stringed music and songs sung to the tune of the Rainbow skirt,
6. 宮牆萬朶金燭火 Myriad candles dotting the palace walls in golden splendor.
7. 銀漢無奈難相比 And powerless is the Milky Way from being compared,
8. 杯傾地滿酒星河 For upon the ground, starry rivers of wine formed from tilted glasses.

3. 觀 can mean “to observe”, “a Taoist temple”, or “imperial watch towers”. In the context, all the meanings are valid.

5. 霓裳羽衣曲 – the rainbow skirt and feathered coat is a court tune and dance composed by Emperor Tang Hsuan Tsung and choreographed by Yang Gui Fei. Now we can safely deduced that 觀 is not used as a verb. It could be also infer that the temple is now silent since Yang Gui Fei had left the place as a nun. By entering into a nunnery, she is no longer considered his daughter-in-law as all her earthly were cut and upon returning to laity, she is like a newborn with a slate wiped clean.

Sunday, June 25, 2023

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