A Shade's Lament - 幽魂怨

1 花凋雁飛惡夢似 Like a bad dream, the flowers had withered and the swans flown,
2 昨夜東君春眠侍 Springtime of last night’s slumber, serving my Lord of the East Wind.
3 朗月復回人未必 The bright moon returns but perhaps not the person, 
4 此行莫非恩盡時 This journey of now is because of love no more?

5 千載萬刼年一渡 Aeons passing but only once a year crossed, 
6 鵲橋今宵絕無疑 Without doubt, tonight’s the night of the Magpie Bridge.
7 凡世三秋仙界日 In the mortal world of three autumns passed, but a day in the fairy realm,
8 稍候重見何難事 How difficult is it to see each other again in a few hours more?

1. The Eastern Bean Goose. Swan has a better imagery in western thought. They symbolize love because of their fidelity towards each other,
2. Chinese Zephyr, God of the flowers. A dream meeting with the lover.
3.  Implying, once dead will never become alive again, unlike the moon or immortals.
4. Indicating the journey of the dead from deduced from the first line.
5. Kalpa, the time between creation and recreation of the universe - in Hinduism – 4.32 billion years. In Buddhism, a regular one is 16.798 million years and a great one is 1.344 trillion.
6. The bridge formed by magpies for the stars of Altair (Cowherd) and Vega (Spinning Maid) for their reunion.
7. It is believed that a day in heaven is equivalent to three years on earth.
8. A Chinese hour is equivalent of two modern hours. Meeting four times in a heaven’s day is better than none for the author who is already in the land of the dead where there is no daylight to speak of.

The Vampire Waltz

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Anne of A Thousand Days - 千日皇后

This was inspired upon seeing the blue rug that costs $1000 not three years ago at a friend's party for a condo housewarming in near downtown San Diego.  And not yet three years complete, an outdoor rug.  I felt sorry for its plight.

往日千金毯 Once it was a thousand gold piece carpet, 
今刻門前藉 But of now, a door front rug.
可憐寵時速 Alas, the time of being favorite went too fast, 
兩年餘謫劇 Just shy of three years, another tale of banishment.

10 Dec 2016

05 Oct 2016

On Human Nature 聆音察理, 鍳貌辨色

This poem came about as I was practising how to write 觀 better for my Chinese calligraphy practice.  Still much practice is needed. Sigh....

1 聆音察理曉哀樂 Listen to the sounds - the joys and pains be known,
2 聞章辨色見人心 Smell the essays to determine it tones and colors of the heart be seen.
3 凡性莫測何難解 Unfathomable mortal behavior is not difficult to gauge,
4 上流下落低處深 Like water flows from high to low, where the lowest is the deepest. 

1. Taken from the Thousand Character Classic.

2. Also from the Thousand Character Classic and adaptation to an allusion from “Smelling Essays”, a story in “Strange Stories in a Chinese Studio”. Two friends went sightseeing in a mountain as they headed out for the Imperial Examinations. There they heard that a blind monk living there can tell how good an essay was written by smelling as it being burnt. Out of curiosity, they went to test the monk out. When the first essay was burning, the monk exclaimed that it was a piece of rapturous refinement and beauty that he had ever smelt. When the second one was burnt, the monk grew angry complaining why he was given such a sumptuous feast and now being served with a piece of crap. A year later, the one who wrote the foul essay became the Number One Scholar and since he was on his way back to his hometown, he decided to confront the monk for being a charlatan. The monk retorted that he was just commenting on the quality of essays but not on one’s fate! The moral of the story is that the blind can see better than those with eyes.

3. On the lines of, “it is easy to get rich in the stock market – just buy low and sell high.” The crux is just “when”.

4. 上流 also mean the “elite” – the superior man and 下落,“whereabouts”, “to mock”, “the base”, “the dregs”. The meaning of the last line is that even gentleman will fall from grace and beware that those with the basest character are “still water runs deep”.

It was one of those rare occasions that I had enough inspiration to compose two poems in a day!

Floating Mountain - 浮山

This one was inspired by a photo of Mt. Baldy which a friend took on a trip.

浮山雲海中 A floating mountain in midst of a sea of clouds, 
披戴翠綠松 Donning robes of green green pines.
留戀仙界閑 Left my heart in the leisure of the fairy realm, 
逃脱紅塵重 Escaped from the weight of the mundane world.

Monday, October 07, 2019

Favored Status - 寵幸

This poem was inspired at a party attended on 05 Oct 2019. I saw a blue rug costing $1000 that was placed out in the patio! I remembered once it was adorned in the living room. I felt sad about its plight.

往日千金毯 Once it was a thousand gold piece carpet,
今刻門前藉 But of now, a door front rug.
可憐寵時速 Alas, the time of being favorite went too fast,
兩年餘謫劇 Just shy of three years, another tale of banishment.

07 Oct 2019

10 Dec 2016  

05 Oct 2019

Vacuity of Life - 人世空虚

1 南柯夢盡一生去 The Dream of the Southern Bough has ended and a life is gone,
2莊蝶醒悟重舊虛 The Butterfly of Chuang Tzu awakened and life’s repeating vacuity grasped.
3月朗高照點途明 High up is the bright moon enlightening my journey,
4普渡苦海來世許 Across the Ocean of Bitterness, salvation of my future life be allowed.

The idea of 朗 came from the Thousand Character Classic.

1 Dream of the Southern Bough
2 The Butterfly Dream
3. It would be redundant for 明 to mean “bright” since 朗 had been used.
4 Buddhist view that life is but a sea of bitterness that has to be transcended and to escape from the trials and tribulations of life by breaking one’s eternal cycle of reincarnation.