Birdie On A Wire

When I was jogging, I saw a bird perching on the street wires…

  

巷尾電欖鳥 Backstreet birdie on an electric wire,

瞻顧世間寥 Peering charily at the quiet world.

過風忽搖驚 The passing wind; spooked by a sudden sway,

展翅一聲叫 One caw and off it went.

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Envied No Longer - 再何慕

Another inspiration from my jogging.  I had been passing by this road up the slope and turning into a dead end.  There is a small  walk path at the end and goes into the park.  Today, it was another nice sunny Southern California day and the idea of not knowing where it will lead to became the initial theme for this piece.

忽見幽處小山路 Suddenly by the quiet corner a small hill path espied,

待君好奇解愁醋 Waiting for its Lord to seek free of his depressed envy.

桃紅水秀花蜂蝶 Peaches red, flowers scented, bees a buzzed and butterflies by the graceful waters,

崑崙瑤池再何慕 Jasper Pools of Kunlun, no longer envied.

The abode of the Queen of the Western Paradise is thought to be on Mt. Kunlun. There exists a body of water named the Jasper Pool where fairies congregate.

Saturday, February 16, 2020

Forgotten

This poem was written sometime in 2019. Most probably it was inspired by the character 驟 from Li Ching Chao’s poem, 夜雨疏風驟，濃睡不消殘酒 since I don’t use it often. The skeletal poem was forgotten and its inception was buried in my brush writing piles until today when I happened to chance it. I am happy that it was finally finished today, unlike the main character in the poem, forgotten and neglected.

1風驟蝶飛倦 The butterfly is tired from flying in the sudden wind,

2雨疏聲滴亂 A light rain pitter-pattering me into inquietude.

3針刺對燭泣 The candle is weeping before the needlework,

4銀光難再緣 And the silvery light, no longer a matchmaker.

5何來君心意 Whence forth are my Lord’s feelings for me?

6舊情隔久遠 From the love that is so distant and so long ago.

7歌酒長樂伴 The songs and the wine -- the constant companions of joy,

8往日洞庭船 Were but from yesteryears – on a boat in the Tung Ting Lake.

3. This line can also be translated as, “Needles pierced into my heart, I wept by the candlelight”.

4. The silvery light of the moon. 難再緣 – Destiny is difficult [to come back again]

2019

Update

1風驟蝶飛倦 Tired butterfly in the sudden wind,

2雨後聲滴亂 The after rain pitter-pattering me into inquietude.

3針刺對燭泣 Into weeping candle as I needle worked,

4殘月鵲橋斷    The morning moon wanes as the magpie bridge breaks

5何來君心意 Whence forth are my Lord’s feelings for me?

6夢遇舊情怨 Fretting over a dream met so long ago.

7歌酒常樂伴 The wine songs -- the constant companions of joy,

8曾經洞庭船 Were once upon a boat on Lake Tung Ting.

1,2. Inspired from 李清照’s   昨夜雨疏風驟   

3. This line can also be translated as, “Needles pierced into my heart, I wept by the candlelight”. Most probably the theme of the needlework is a pair of Mandarin ducks, symbolizing eternal love as she remembered the good old days.

4. The “crippled moon”,  the almost faded moon still seen in the morning sky disappearing.  The Bridge is an allusion to the Chinese Tale of “the Heavenly Spinning Maid and the Cowherd”.  They are allowed to meet once a year on the 7^th night of the 7^th Month of the lunar calendar when the stars Altair and Vega are at their closest. The bridge is formed from magpies.

7. I prefer the way how 常 is written with a brush.

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Valentine 2020

Today is another day catered towards commercialism to pry loose your wallet for unnecessary expenditure.  As for me, once more to kill time and keep my mind occupied on my arduous hour jog. Paltry words for a paltry poem.  No matter what, a great resource for me to practise the same old characters in a different way for my brush writing practice.

1.推開樓窗憶歸燕 Pushing the high above windows, I yearned for the returning swallows,

2.觸回枝葉夏日蟬 But was reminded of that summer’s cicadas upon the leaves and branches.

3.秋來音絕夢環送 Autumn had gone and no news came but through dreams sent,

4.雪降霜飛酒後眠 Falling snow, flying flurries, a few cups more before to the Morphean world.

1.Two swallows flying together means lover’s bliss.

2.The incessant noise of summer cicadas is a Japanese euphemism.

3. 音絕 can also refer to the cicada sounds had stopped. The sounds were sent to the other person as a reminder of their summer love.

4. 霜 is a homophone for 雙 (a pair) to refer back to the first line of 雙飛燕.

Friday, February 14, 2020

A Good Omen - 鳳兆吉瑞,太平廣世

Again, trying to avoid boredom during my jog. On my way back, after my theme was completed, I saw in the sky, a group of clouds appeared to be like a phoenix in flight. So, I went back to get my phone to take a photo. By the time the photo was taken, the image wasn’t as sharp as before. Still, a good omen in Chinese culture especially for me as the poem was written in my head before this cloud formation.

  

1南天莫見白雲飛 I don’t see white clouds flying at Heaven’s gate.
2逍遙仙鶴何踪去 And where are the fairy cranes of leisure?
3瑤池蟠桃看無席 There’s no peach party at the Jasper Pool,
4歌酒蓬萊未必聚 And at the merriment of the Blessed Isles – I don’t think so.
5極樂西土難有緣 Neither are they destined for Western Paradise
6東海龍宮素不居 Nor frequenting the Palace of the Dragon King’s Eastern Ocean.
7豁然抬頭壁一望 Lifting my head, suddenly, I espied on the wall,
8畫中自在清閑醉 Besotting in a painting of idyllic drunkenness.

1.Short for 南天門 The Southern Celestial Gates, the only entrance to Heaven where the Jade Emperor presides. Heaven, like its Earth’s counter part is filled with bureaucracy and rules and is not a place where one can do as he wishes.

2.It is a coincidence that 白雲飛 and 仙鶴 are mentioned together. 白雲飛 is the heroine of 仙鶴神針, The Romance of the Celestial Crane and Divine Needles, a martial arts story.

3. The Jasper Pool is located in the Kunlun Mountains where 西王母, the Queen Mother of the West holds court. Every 12,000 years she would throw a party for immortals to partake the peaches of immortality. It was on one such occasion that Monkey King ruined everything when he gobbled all the peaches and polished off all the elixir.

4. The Blessed Isles are where Earth Immortals reside. They can be more rambunctious than those residing in Heaven as they do not live in heaven and does not come under its direct jurisdiction. The most famous bunch are the fun loving Eight Immortals.

5.The Western Paradise is where Buddha holds sermons.

6.The eastern ocean is where the chief Dragon King resides in an underwater palace. Of course, being creatures of the sky, they would find the place confining.

7.Now we know that both the clouds and cranes are hiding in a painting for respite.

8. We don’t know who is drunk, the celestial creatures or the poet.

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Letting Go - 捨去

My muse is kind to me this month. Another jog another one day poem. I was looking up into the blue sky and on seeing fleecy cloud passing over the mountain top.  To keep my mind from boredom... Later, as I listened to Matt Monroe's "Before You Go", all language refinements took place.

白雲西向青山過 Towards the west, white clouds passing over the green mountains,

書劍恩仇無盡波 Whether a scholar or a fighter be, vengeful requitals and resentments are endless.

拂清袖風何惜顧 Even the wind in my sleeves are swished out – Should I care anymore?

稀少晴日雨夜多 For rare are sunny days and rainy nights too many.

Green mountains are the foolhardy and headstrong youth. Westerly white clouds -- the aged approaching death. Thus, the first line is saying, another aged had passed away leaving the young to carry on. Waves – the turbulence of the world caused by those youthful sap and the reckless unforgiving old. A play on 兩袖清風 (pure wind in the two sleeves) -- an upright incorruptible honest person; usually said of a judge or an official leaving his post clean with no bribe taken during his tenure.

From 書劍恩仇記 which I had glimpsed on Youtube last night.

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Unpredictability - 難測

Love must be in the air in the month of February for me to have another one so quickly in succession! 

It was a great change from yesterday.  It was cold and dank; misting in rain.  Today’s sunshine abound and white fleecy clouds hanging over the blue sky’s horizon… I wanted to write a poem about the good weather.  In the end, it morphed into something totally different.

曉日莫待雞啼喚 The breaking dawn waits for no beckoning from the rooster’s crow,

花落無須秋來換 Falling blossoms need no autumn to come and change things.

難測何時上路行 ‘tis difficult to predict when one’s eternal journey begin,

惟與世君常樂共 The only recourse is to enjoy the shared pleasures with my one and only thee.

Monday, February 10, 2020

The Unfortunate and Fortunate in the Rain - 雨中刼幸

This was inspired by my jog after the rains had stopped.  However, in the middle of my jog, the drizzle returned.  The inspiring line was 不見行人雨路浥.At first, the theme was that it is just a quiet tranquil road on which I imagined to be in.  However, I think I had a previous poem about a similar situation and so I didn’t want to repeat.  Then I came up with an idea about walking in the city where the coiffured and the manicured were aghast at the coming rain to ruin their makeup, their clothes etc.  Only I, am able to appreciate the respite of quietude in the hustle and bustle of a city that gives me no peace.

閑步微滴何須急 Strolling leisurely, why should the lazy drip-a-drip droplets and I be in hurriedness?

胭脂粉黛莊容失 Only those prim and proper, in effete and coiffured makeups had turned pale.

隔世塵音相喜逢 Freed from the hustle and bustle of this vulgar world, twain met in joy,

不見行人雨路浥 No more vulgarities on this wet rainy street…

The “two” here refers to the rain and the poet. The rain is glad to meet someone who appreciates its beauty and the poet is glad to be freed from the worldliness. In this world of multitudes, one will finally meet someone who fulfills the simple requirements of your love. “Vulgarity” here is the old original meaning of “common”.

Sunday, February 09, 2020

Life's Etherealness

Life's Etherealness

來去黃金總是夢 The coming and going of easy money, in the end is but a dream,
離別紅塵再相逢 Adieu to this mortal world, we shall meet once again.
到頭誰證虛實有 In the end, who is to say what is the truth or falsity?
唯今此世多珍重 The only thing is to treasure more in this life.

Saturday, February 08, 2020

Approaching Valentine 2020

Valentine 2020 is approaching…

01寒來暑往十六逢 The winter cold came and the summer heat went, we met at sixteen,
02半世流光似夢中 Half our lifetimes seemed like living in a dream.
03月下相敬莫須言 Nary a word needed as we toast each other under the moonlight,
04酒未到唇先初紅 The wine had yet to touch our lips, our first blushes had begun.

This is not the only interpretation as many supporting details are left out. It is up to the reader to fill in the blanks. Western poetry is like watching a movie, one is under the influence of interpretation of the director. Chinese poems, on the other hand is like reading a book, invoking imagery of your own interpretation.

1.The first four characters come from the Thousand Character Classic. Its literal translation is “the heat came and the cold went”; It represents the coming and going of summer and winter -- no ambiguity here. The last three characters are problematic because some details are left out. It could mean that “summer and winter had met sixteen times, “sixteen years had passed”, “the subjects met at sixteen”, “met at an early age”, “they met for 16 times” or even “met on the 16th day of the month”. From the context of the second line, we know it cannot mean the date.

2.There is no ambiguity here, “we had such great time as if we were in a dream”. Still we don’t know which of the other cases are valid. However, this is not important.

3. In general, 相敬 means mutual respect. 敬 here means to lift a cup in toast. This is confirmed in the last line. No word is needed for this merriment for they understand each other so well.

4. The wine has not touched their lips and signs of a flush had begun. Are they reminiscing of their first encounter in their youthful days? Or that their love is as if they had just met yesterday?

Thursday, January 23, 2020

First Three Poems in 2020

So many parties to attend... I love it.  Then there is not much time nor the mood to update my blog until now -- otherwise it would be more work later and since this coming Friday is the last day of the old year, anticipating the arrival of the Year of the Rat. Here's a poem to mark the occasion and I better upload everything now.

春回人間翠綠紅 Spring returning to the mortal lands in blues, greens, and reds,
和氣盡來再相逢 Once more met in great harmony and warmth
臘梅怒放太平世 As wintersweet blooms burst forth in this age of peace,
難辨花甲一舊夢 Indistinguishable from one sixty-year old’s dream.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

For each year in the Chinese calendar, there is an associated element to its animal sign. There are five elements, metal, fire, water and earth. Hence a cycle of sixty years would have gone by before the same sign and element combination reappears. 甲 is the first of the ten celestial stems, 天干.

 his second one was written shortly after the first one while I was in mood...

花艷蝶飛景前美 Flitting butterflies amongst flowers of grace, a scene of beauty,
有誰不識春光媚 Is there no one not know of the seductive fragrance of spring?
休笑古松老人顏 Sneer not at the rimpled faces of the old,
曾經歲月年華戲 A joke played by Time on the once upon a time of youth.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Might as well put my third one here as well.  This was inspired by the theme from the Last Emperor...

日落飛霞夜寒風 Amid the swirling red clouds, the sun sets and the night wind will be cold,
清霸天下再莫逢 Never will the power of the Ch’ings once more met.
景陽三鞭靜無影 Quiet are the silent shadows of the Bell of the Rising Sun and crackling whips,
月下孤牆守舊夢 Under the moonlight, these lonely walls still guard the dreams of old.

Monday, January 13, 2020