The Greener Sides

 

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