Success Changeth the Man - 獨佔鼇頭人心變

Every outsider sings praises of the beauty of the virtuous wife at each official function.  Truth be known that a garden flower is no match for the wild ones.  Men are hollow -- just look at the revelry spent throughout the night on the ship after the obligatory gestures are over.

The wife reminisces the poverty days of yore.  At least there was time spent in togetherness and making sure everything is to his comfort and to encourage that success is a distant sight whenever he is down. Suddenly that one day came… His hopes and hers were realized.  Though not the number one, life is at least on easy street.  How wrong she was to think of such ideals; now realizing that love had been traded for material comfort.

1每逢中秋捧月美 High praises for the lunar beauty when each Mid-Autumn comes around,

2銀光難比胭脂媚 Alas its silvery light is no match for the seductive rouge.

3空虛人心一瞭知 One look from above, hollowness of human hearts is known,

4酒樂歌歡船頭尾 In song and wine all over the boat.

5嬋娟殷勤書朗照 Solicitously she shines for his study,

6蟾宮籬隔遠萬里 The Palace just beyond the fence is of ten thousand miles away.

7廣寒探花桂枝折 To the Great Cold, Number Three scholar comes breaking the osmanthus brow,

8嫦娥寂寞何足奇 The Lunar Goddess still in loneliness – no surprise here.

1捧:to lift high

2 家花不比野花香 Garden flowers never more desirous as wild flowers – What you don’t possess is more desirous.

4樂:can be joy or music depending on its reading.  船頭尾:The prow and the rear of the boat.

5嬋娟: A lunar personification a girl. Depending on 書朗 or 朗照 is grouped,  it can be translated as, “… as he recites his passages”

6蟾宮:The Toad Palace, another term for the moon.  It is believed that this three-legged toad resides with the white rabbit, the osmanthus tree and the Goddess of the moon.

7探花: The Number Three Scholar. 狀元 and 榜眼, being the top two respectively.

8嫦娥: Chang-O, goddess of the moon

Monday, December 09, 2019

Unsatiated - 不足

This one was came from a line from https://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2019/12/untitled.html

無谷山何有 Where are the mountains when there are no valleys,
高處水流急 In high places, water flows in hurried swiftness..
人生不足求 Life's satiation never satisfied,

更滴錦繡浥 Will only bring greater tears to rich brocades.

On A Rainy Day 雨日上

Today, Wednesday, December 04, 2019 was a rainy day. It came with a vengeance and too soon, whimpered like a whisper of a departing lover.  So, when sunshine peeked out of the clouds languorously,  I went for my mundane daily jog.  The road was wet and the air, pure and fresh.  Alone I went, alone in thoughts when words came a calling…

雨過土濕獨步閑 The rains had passed, the ground is wet and in leisure I strolled,

湖岸靜思烟鎖橫 Deep in thoughts, enshrouded in dense fog by the lakes's banks.

船頭不聲豁然露 When in a sudden flash, the boat’s prow appeared,

冲破沆瀣再無煩 Slicing through the mists, no longer in vexation.

When the context is clear, Chinese is a pronoun dropping language.  Unless there is no other interpretation, pronouns can be added for fluency in the target language as in the first line.  However, in the last line, unless one knows exactly what the poet had in mind, adding pronouns won't be appropriate at all as it can imply the boat passengers are relieved to see the banks.

Old Flame - 舊情

1 弦歌酒宴舉目同 Banquet music of the zithers rose, our eyes met at the same time,

2 猶豫曾似昨夜夢 In hesitation, as if a dream from last night.

3 暗淚先滴杯未落 Secret tears a trickled even before the wine cup is at rest,

4 梅雨無聲雪地紅 Silent plum blossom rain, staining the snow-covered ground in red.

5 一春十六牡丹盛 One spring of sixteen, when peonies are blossoming in profusion,

6 亭外兩心蝶戀逢 Ill-met are the two hearts of butterfly lovers by the pavilion.

7 可恨今世女兒身 Spiteful is this life of a girl’s body,

8 遺憾樓高困彩鳳 The regrets of a multi-colored phoenix; in the high tower imprisoned.

1.Taken and adapted from a line in Thousand Character Classic (千字文) 弦歌酒宴, 接杯舉觴

5. An allusion to The Peony Pavilion 牡丹亭 where the hero dreamt of the heroine. The play was considered obscene because of free choice of love which goes against the grain of Confucian ethics.

6. Another allusion – The Butterfly Lovers, Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet.

7.  Women in ancient China are considered as properties of the parents, then the husband when married and then of the sons if the father is gone.  However, there are loopholes because of filial piety.  There are many strong women in the long history of China.  The most famous being Empress  Wu, who broke many precedents and gave much equality to the fairer sex.

8. Unmarried girls are resided in the highest location of the house.

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Untitled - 無題

1山高溪流急 Mountains high; streams floweth in hurriedness,

2雲低雨滴閑 Clouds low; rain falling indolently.

3舟渡苦海深 Surging forth deeply into the ocean, is a little boat,

4遠聞鐘聲寒 Cold sounds of bells heard wafting from afar.

5人心不足息 Insatiable is the human heart,

6罪惡紅塵間 Filling the vulgar world in sin.

7長江東盡去 Eastwards the long river flows till its demise,

8水覆再難返 ’tis impossible for poured water runneth back [to its cup].

3 Chinese Buddhism views life as a sea of bitterness.

4 Bells here refer to those tolling in a Buddhist temple.   苦海無邊, 回頭是岸 The Sea of Bitterness has no end; Going back, will be the shore, a Buddhist saying about repentance.

6. 紅塵: Red dust, Buddhist term for the mundane world of mortals.

7. Referring to the Yangtze Kiang.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

West Lake Old Reminisces - 西湖舊憶

艇過銀波寒宮寂 The skiff had left the silvery waves and the cold Lunar Palace is alone,

無聲卷留攕月色 Leaving in silence, ripples in undulation shattering the moonlight.

水動光浮何人目 Floating light upon the moving waters for whom to see?

雷峰舊映有誰憶 Old reflections of the Thunder Peak Pagoda, none remembered.

Thunder Peak Pagoda is where Madame White Snake was imprisoned after she killed thousands of innocents when she cause the river to course up the mountain to flood the Temple of the Golden Mountain to free her imprisoned husband from the clutches of the self-righteous abbot.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leifeng_Pagoda

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Encouragement - 晨鐘暮鼓

1 白雲青山過 White clouds over the green hills passed,

2 紅葉紫泉流 Red leaves upon the purple springs floweth.

3 路遙馬亦倦 The road is long and even the horses are tired,

4 桃源各自求 To each his own, his Peach Source sought.

5 朗月飛霜冷 The moon is bright and flurrying snow is cold,

6 廣寒寂寞樓 Towers of the Great Frigid  Palace are alone.

7 桂枝為誰折 Osmanthus bough for whom to break?

8 十年窗苦瘦 Those lean decade of arduous study by the window.

1 White clouds, green hills: old age and youth.

2 Purple springs: fairy pools; Red maple leaves: an allusion from the story of "The Wondrous Tale of the Red Leaf", 紅葉奇緣

3 Horses: those helping

4 Peach Source: paradise, allusion to 桃源記

5 Remnants of a snowstorm and the clouds are gone.

6 The lunar palace where the goddess of the moon lives.

7 Breaking the osmanthus bough – success in gaining officialdom through passing the imperial exams.

8 窗苦:  So poor that one has to study by the moonlight by the window.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Romance of the Green Bowers - 青樓然

This inspiration comes from a friend lamenting his comings and goings, make no difference in loneliness.  He's a flight attendant.

1 來去匆速總是空 In the end, fast comings and quick goings are just empty promises,

2 流光碎影莫待紅 Time floweth; shattered shadows, nary rosiness awaited.

3 桃花一朝風催落 One day cometh; falling peach blossoms withered by the wind,

4 曾經嫦娥此寒宮 O former Goddess of the moon of this cold cold palace…

5 黄金艷色永無退 Gold forever seductive -- never tarnishes,

6 白玉瑕缺終須逢 White jade flaws -- eventually met,

7 微溫燭淚夜常伴 Feeble warmth and candle tears, my nightly companions,

8 鑒世己擁作綺夢 Embracing my worldly reflections as sweet sweet dreams.

2. 紅,red can refer to the rouge or the rosiness of youth.

3. Peach blossom comes in many different shades of red.

4. 嫦娥, the moon goddess lives in the palace called “The Great Cold”.

7. Candle tears – literary term for dripping wax.

8. 鑒 – highly polished bronze surfaces used as mirrors in ancient China and the meaning is extended to “reflections of oneself”. As verb, to view, or observe.

 

Thursday, 14 November 2019

The Romance of the Red Leaf - 紅葉奇緣

This is a story about a poor young scholar during the reign of Tang Hsi Tsung (唐僖宗) who by chance picked up a large red leaf in the imperial moat.  He was surprised to see that there was a poem written on it,

 

水流何太急 The water’s flowing too fast,

深宮盡日閑 Inside the imperial palace, all day with nothing to do.

殷勤謝紅葉 Profusely I thank this red leaf,

好去到人間 With Godspeed to the world of commoners.

The young scholar fell in love with this unknown poetess after reading such melancholy and could not part with it.  So, he kept the leaf.  He then picked another red leaf and wrote a poetic reply.  He walked to the upper stream and let it float into the palace,

曾聞葉上題紅怨 Upon the leaf a beauty’s lament heard,

葉上題詩寄阿誰 For whom this leaf poem thou dost go?

  

He thought no more of the incident when he did not find any reply later.  The following year, the scholar took the imperial exams but did not obtain top honors.  His ambitions sank and gave up on his dreams.  Life still has to go on and he became a private tutor in the household of an official in the capital.  Later, a group of “over-aged” palace ladies were retired and were let go to seek their fortunes.  In the group was a distant relative to the official.  She was about thirty years of age, very elegant and beautiful.  From this connection, the scholar eventually won her hand and lived happily.  

Years later, while cleaning her husband’s studio, she found the red leaf poem in a box.  She demanded the meaning of this from the husband. The confronted husband had no choice but to tell her the truth.  The wife sighed and left for her room.  She then came back, holding a red leaf.  On it was another poem written as reply.  She did not send it knowing the futility of her whimsical action in the first place...

獨步天溝岸 By the imperial banks, I stroll in loneliness,

臨流得葉時 A time bringeth me to this leaf.

此情誰會得 For whom this love begets?

斷腸一聯詩 Woeful ‘tis but a couplet poem.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019