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