The original was written on 17 Sep 2018. I was approaching Death Valley in the car from a faraway distance and saw a sandstorm racing across the valley floor towards the purple colored mountains that were enshrouded in a purple haze.
橫掃塵飛西北風 Sweeping unbridled and kicking up the dust is the north-west wind.
沙漠天邊紫山逢 The edge of the desert meets the faraway purple mountains,
何日得聽雨濛瀧 When oh when do I hear the misty rains?
Then minor changes were made later in the day,
橫掃西北萬里風 Across ten thousand miles, the unbridled northwestern wind swept,
沙漠塵飛紫山逢 Kicking up the desert dust till the purple mountains met.
何日歸期初步始 When oh when will the first step of journeying home begin?
眠中醉聽雨濛瀧 My Dreams are the inebriating sounds of misty rains.
眠中醉聽雨濛瀧 My Dreams are the inebriating sounds of misty rains.
Almost a year later, came this update...
1 橫掃西北萬里風 Across ten-thousand miles, the unbridled northwestern wind swept,
2 沙河塵飛千日重 Kicking up dust from the sandy rivers,
a thousand days of weight upon me.
3 問天歸期未有期 Asking Heaven if
there’s a date of return,
4 雨在故鄉醉濛瀧 Rains upon hometown in my drunken mistiness.
5 烟雲夢碎戰鼓乍 Sudden thundering war drums shatter my dream of the wind and clouds,
6 沉月光殘燭泣紅 The descending moon; its light weakening; the candle weeps in red.
7 何畏胡蹄數百匹 What’s there to fear? Just only a few hundred barbarian
hooves,
8 惟恐今宵難早逢 But worrying that our meeting tonight won’t be early enough.
Notes:
1: Can be interpreted as subduing the northwest easily like the wind blowing across the landscape.
2. This is ambiguous. 重 with a change in tone means "again" or "repeated" - that each and everyday is like any other, mundane scenery of dust storms.
3. With a change of the first two characters, the rest of line is taken from Li Shang Yin's 君問歸期未有期, 巴山夜雨漲秋池...
6. Chinese candles are red in color. White ones are reserved for funerals. The dripping wax is like tears, burning its life away.
7. Hooves can either mean
those of the horses or the barbarians.
Notes:
1: Can be interpreted as subduing the northwest easily like the wind blowing across the landscape.
2. This is ambiguous. 重 with a change in tone means "again" or "repeated" - that each and everyday is like any other, mundane scenery of dust storms.
3. With a change of the first two characters, the rest of line is taken from Li Shang Yin's 君問歸期未有期, 巴山夜雨漲秋池...
6. Chinese candles are red in color. White ones are reserved for funerals. The dripping wax is like tears, burning its life away.
