This was germinated on 02 Mar 2020 during my jog from the line, 冷月寒夜一杯酒.No matter what angle I was taking, I could not easily complete the poem.
It was put in the backburner of my mind. By the next day’s jog, I was at it again when I remembered that on 28 Feb, after having dinner in Ventura downtown and was having a gelato cone in hand that I saw on the street, three young boys running down the street towards my direction in carefree laughter.
One was a long-haired blond. His hair was swaying in vibrancy as if spun from the freshest gold threads. I felt agony when compared to their energy levels. All I wanted was to go back to the hotel and call it a night. Where did my vitality went?
From this, I imagined that I was dining alfresco on top of a building looking down the street and saw the carefreeness of callous youth…
1枱靜山珍蟠桃酒
Quiet is the table flushed
with plates of delicacies and expensive wines,
2街上暄擾年華秀
But the endearing sounds of boisterous
youth are on the streets.
3秋憶遠久十六春
The autumnal years yearn
for its sixteenth spring of yore,
4曾似流光欲登樓
Was it not once upon a time? The desire to fly to the top of the world?
5宴後飽飫步温閑
Done is the banquet and a
leisure stroll in satiated warmth,
6冷月寒風追伴愁 The moon is cold; the winds are
chilly; chasing the downhearted as companionship.
7至少安寢夢相遇 At least a safe place of slumber where dreams
can be met,
8好比無瓦遮老頭
‘tis better than no roof
over this old head.
1.From
the phrase 山珍海味 to
mean “rare exotic meats of the mountains and tastes of the ocean”. 蟠桃酒, not wine made from the
immortal peaches but the elixir served at the
banquet of the Western
Queen Mother. It was at one such banquet
that the Monkey King wrecked the party when he ate all the peaches and drank
all the elixir.
2.秀 means elegant, winsome, graceful,
superior etc.
3.憶 can also mean “to remember”
4. 登樓
means “to climb up the
building”. Finally, this line reveals
that the successful is dining alone on the top floor. Peering down on the
street where sounds of youth are at, he remembered how in his youth had been yearning
to be up there having fine food. Now he regrets the price of youth he had paid
for.
5. 飽飫 from the Thousand Character
Classic 飽飫烹宰, 飢厭糟糠
8. 瓦:
Roof tiles
Thursday,
March 05, 2020
