A Pot of Tea

This picture of a modern fake Ch'ing Dynasty ceramic style was posted by Fred Liu to the Chinese Poetry Group in Facebook…  He wrote a poem and he translated into English.  I was inspired more by the picture than his poem.

壶心

那些柔美的线条 Those charming curves
神秘的图案         Enticing patterns
和明媚的颜色     And pleasing colors
怎将内心的况味 How can they speak
稍稍诉说？        For their contents


©️德江 Fred Liu
Photo from the web.

This was my inspiration… To my first reaction was how a modern piece can speak of past happenings, especially when private details that were not witnessed first hand.  However, I changed the tone and theme to one that has more than one interpretation.

黃底花彩紅, Yellow background with flowers of red,
近代仿乾隆, New imitation of the Chien Lung period.
琺瑯一壺茶, A famille rose pot of tea,
難盡清宮夢. For Ch’ing Palace dreams still lingering on…

Thursday, August 6, 2020

A Covid 19 Poem

This was inspired while I was jogging.  Why not a poem about the current affairs of the world...

春色燦爛何須接 Why the need to receive Spring in all its splendor?
無奈隔絕世外刼 When alas in isolation from the ravages of the outside world.
冠年十九常寂寞 At nineteen before the cap year, often lonely,
志向芳徑迷踪蝶 All goals towards the perfumery path, are traces of lost butterflies. 

The translation of the coronavirus in Chinese is 冠狀 (cap/hat shape) and is encoded into the poem.  "Cap ceremony" (冠禮) is when males are entitled to wear a cap to signify their adulthood upon attaining the age of twenty (19 in western calendar reckoning).  In Japan, it is known as "Genpuku" (元服). Here in the poem, doubles to mean the year of the virus.  

Monday, August 3, 2020