夜怨 Night Lament

The first draft for the first four lines from 紫霞深鎖水月天 was easily done as I had a storyline. The second verse was a bit more difficult as I need to match and contrast the mood in the first and refinements took another day.

夜怨 - Night Lament 

紫霞夢鎖水月天 Dreamily, the purple haze engulfs the watery sky of the moon,
船頭呻吟醉翁眠 By the bow, the drunken old boatman asleep in snores.
停針欲共春色夜 I ceased my embroidery, pondering if a spring night be shared in togetherness,
艄處勤讀出無言 Deep into his studies by the stern, my words had lost their voice,

曾似裙下花上蝶 Seemed that around my skirt's hem and flower tops butterflies once hovered,
現是眼前湖中烟 Are now but mists of the lake.
難回當日明媚時 Nary would the old days of splendor return,
惟向刺繡怨衷纒 My knotted-heart laments -- upon the brocade sewn.

Monday, June 03, 2019

The Grand Scheme of Things - 大道志

For this one, I have to thank Patrick Hulsman for posting this photo... The original first inspired line was 小橋莫識大道志.

小橋愚惷大道志, Clueless is the tiny bridge about the way of the great road1,

惟解穿越白灘止. Connecting to the white sandy beach is all it knows.
借問緣何此離索, And if I may ask, “Why such desolation?”,
凡胎見識凡眼視. Mere mortals see what is only sublunary.

浮雲滄海顯明來, For you -- only floating clouds and the ocean cometh,
飛天龍王隱若至. But half-hidden herald of Apsaras2 and Dragon Kings for me.
有緣同樂仙家逢, Destined that I enjoy the fairyness met,
蘆葦普渡恐我意. ‘tis not my intention to enlighten the common masses3.

1. A pun. 大道 can also mean "Great Principle/Truth"

2. Literally, "flying to heaven"

3. Literally, "common reeds"

Another Interpretation

This poem was started as I was waking up with the line lingering from my dream world, 花間霧罩烟鎖客 Fog engulfs the world of flowers as mists enshroud the traveller.  However, as refinements started, the theme became too mundane.  Then I remembered seeing photos of the deceased at an younger age in obituaries or at Chinese funerals...

船頭烟雨雲鎖客 Misty rain on the prow; fog enshrouding the traveller,
伸指難辨眼前白 Outstretched hands; disappearing into the whiteness ahead.
若緣仙氣散迷津 And if destined; fairy breaths will banish all this blurriness,
露出蟠桃兩岸隔 Revealing the peaches of immortality separated by both banks.

凡世恩怨眷不顧 All worldly amities and grudges no longer a concern,
兩袖清風再無責 Sleeves billowing; nary a responsibility to shoulder.
逍遙莫恐五更夢 Carefree; no longer afraid of daybreak dreams,
重回曾失弱冠刻 Returning once more to lost halcyon days of his youth.

For a less morbid setting, another intepretation for the photo in https://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2019/03/a-photo-inspired-poem.html. 

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Translation of the Iroha

I don't know Japanese. All I can do is to glean whatever information I can find in the English and other Chinese translations from Wikipedia. So take it with a grain of salt.

殘香徘徊,花身已去.
世上有誰,常駐罔易.
有為深山,今日攀越.

浮夢莫擁,醉生不任.

Thursday, 23 May 2019

One Snowy Lantern Festival's Eve - 雪夜元宵前夕

This poem began its life as a sarcastic retort but in the end, the deeper meaning could be applied to anyone including myself!

娥兒傲氣壓乾坤, The lunar amour-propre oppresses even Heaven and Earth,
銀光捫雪漸西沉. Silvery light stroking1 the snowscaped as it nonchalantly sets into the west.
夢裡紅梅連夜發, Sweet slumbering plum blossoms of red awakened within the night,
莫待東君無衣新. Wait not the Lord of the East2 arrives without his raiment new.

元宵彩結花鐵樹, On the first Fifteenth Night, colors congregating like giant cycads in bloom3,
金星雨引醉蘭心. Rain-like golden stars4 tempting the hearts of the chaste into joys of inebriation.
玉壺走馬戲鸞鳳, Giant moving lanterns5 teasing the painted phoenixes6,
誰曉昂天近月親. Who would bother to gaze up into the sky and take the moon into their hearts?

1. As if to make the snow white. In TCM, 捫 means to feel the pulse of the patient.

2.The spring wind or the God of the flowers; personification of spring.

3. Cycad’s blooms are a rarity. This is an exaggeration in looking forward to the first fifteenth night of the New Year. The Lantern Festival or the Chinese Valentine’s Night is the only time when both sexes are allowed to intermingle freely.

4.The idea of the first two lines of the second stanza are lifted from 辛棄疾’s《青玉案·元夕》.東風夜放花千樹。更吹落、星如雨。寶馬雕車香滿路。鳳簫聲動，玉壺光轉，一夜魚龍舞。蛾兒雪柳黃金縷。笑語盈盈暗香去。衆裏尋他千百度。驀然回首，那人卻在，燈火闌珊處。

金星 can be translated as the Planet Venus. Of course, in this context, a far stretch idea. The image of the Chinese is of an old man with snowy white hair instead of a ravishing youthful beauty of a Roman love goddess!

5.玉壺燈 are exquisite and intricately made giant lanterns. 走馬燈 has a spinning mechanism that is driven by the heat of the candle inside for primitive zoetrope-like effect.

6. The 鸞 is a mythical bird of divinity; akin to the phoenix. It may refer to the spectators as the combined term can mean the following:

a. the virtuous
b. beautiful people
c. husband and wife
d. the emperor
e. a beauty.

So, take your pick. Any interpretation would fit the context.

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Misty Dream - 烟夢

This idea came into my mind as I was waking up,

雨後烟語兩心傾 After the rains, speaking through the mists, two hearts inclined,
螢前微光二人景 Before the Lilliputian lights of fireflies is a scene of lovers paired.
交杯欲舉共同暖 Just as exchanging cups are to be joined in shared warmth,
雲散緣盡一風清 Destiny ends as mists blasted away by a gust of wind.

In Cantonese, 傾 can also mean “to chat or converse”. 清 as verb means to “be cleared away”. As adjective, it means “pure/fresh”. The last line can also be translated as, “When Destiny ends, the mists are dissipated and gone like a gust of wind/breeze.” There is not enough context to determine exactly what’s in the poet’s mind.

Wednesday, May 08, 2019

Opium Dreams - 鴉片夢

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.

This was posted by someone on italki with her own translation. However, I made it poetic,

生命莫待雨驟過, 來時起舞隨中學.

It is too beautiful a quote to pass up and not have a poem for it.  

However, I spent two days and nothing came out of it.  It was during one of my calligraphy practice that some invisible hand caused me unconsciously to write out 莫待春色過,Wait not till the colors of spring are gone. I did not like the initial draft.  Eventually the five character lines morphed into seven character ones which I believed packed in greater emotion.  Listening to 吻別 greatly helped the mood too.

難信四月就此過 It’s hard to believe that April is already gone like this,

春日花盛闋無多 Heyday of spring is over - blooms no longer in abundance.

雲非地上凡間物 Clouds don’t belong to this mortal world,

鴉片閑浮他南柯 They laze and float in other morphinic dreams of the Southern Bough.

The Dream of the Southern Bough

Wednesday, May 01, 2019