1 白鸕戲水晴天潛 Upon the waters, a white cormorant playfully dives into a sunny sky,
2 波濺池影飛銀閃 Glittering drops of silver splattering at ripples and pond reflections.
3 願為逍遙作閑鳥 For carefreeness, an idle bird that I should be,
4 何慮恩怨凡塵染 Why worry about the mortal realm tainted by love and grudges?
1 The sunny sky is the watery reflection on the pond. For one who is carefree, it matters not whether the sky is upwards or on the water. Originally, I used 白鷺, white heron but found out that these birds do not dive for their prey and I did not like to take poetic licence since a cormorant has the same pronunciation. Pure white cormorants do exist in nature as albinos.
2 What is not explicitly stated is that reflections are shattered upon impact but another beauty arises in form of splattering silver drops. Both are temporary situations and emphasizes the non-important nature of the matter to a carefree person.
3 This is the pivot line that forms the basis to the implicit meaning of the previous lines.
4 The reason that in order to be carefree, one has to be freed from all emotional entanglements of life.
Saturday, August 5, 2023
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