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