Hawaii Inspired

 

These inspirations came from my trip in Hawaii. I am not a great fan of travelling and at the same time, had been there many times before.  Since I had to go, they are the silver linings. Grouping these thirteen pieces in one place, I won't have to title them individually.

#1

This was composed to kill time during the six hour flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii.  Vacation here I come!

1 愁酒一杯向天舉 A cup of bitter wine raised to the sky,
2 當初長生七夕許 In the Palace of Eternal Life, on the Seventh Night of then, a promise made.

3 霓裳羽衣歌樂盡 No longer around are the song and dance of the Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Dress,
4上陽寂寞今宵淚 Tonight’s tears are the loneliness of the Palace of Supreme Brightness.

2 The palace where the Emperor Hsuan Tsung and his beloved concubine made their pledges to each other during one Seventh Night. It is also a play based on Po Chu-I’s poem, The Everlasting Sorrow about their ill-fated love.

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

3 A grand repertoire purportedly choreographed by Yang Guifei and set to music by the Emperor himself. Music and dance were considered integral parts of a whole, each dance would have a piece of music associated with it; the word for music 樂therefore can also refer to dance.

4 The retirement palace of the aged emperor after his beloved was forced to be hanged on his orders during their flight from Changan to Szechuan when the imperial guards refused to go further as they believed she was the root cause of the An Lu Shan rebellion.

Sunday, 7 November 2021

#2

This was inspired by a night walk in the park. However, it was not completed until I was trying to kill time away during a six-hour flight to Hawaii.

1 窗前明月照後庭 Bright is the moon shining outside the window on the courtyard,
2 池中波水接花映 Ripples in the pond receiving the reflections of flowers.
3 舉頭問天手一杯 Lifting my head I asked Heaven with a cup in hand,
4 嫦娥嬌笑拒相迎 O Goddess of the Moon, you refused my welcome and yet coyly smiled.

2 Flowers here can refer to the ladies of the green bowers!

Monday, 8 November 2021

#3

I was walking on the Waikiki Strip late in the morning. The stores had not opened yet even though the sun was high. Stores here don’t opened until 11 or 11:30am. It was getting hot and muggy to walk under the sun even when the continuous cool sea breeze was blowing. Only when in shade did the condition became ideal.

街上行人夜海風 Passers-by on the street, sea breezes of the night,
輝煌商店馬遊龍 Hustling and bustling, stores glamouring in light.
十年更改客顏新 A decade of changes, faces of shoppers anew,
唉憾失去舊日夢 With a heave and a sigh, lost are the dreams of yore.

Tuesday, 09 November 2021

#4

This was inspired by the sunset at the Wailoakola Beach Marriot Hotel & Spa.

1 遠在天邊碧海帆 Far into the world's edge is a sailboat upon the ocean blue,

2 殘陽一道撇水閑 A carefree stroke across the waters is a path of dying sunlight.
3 今刻曾經眼前花 Flowers of then now before my very eyes,
4 舊日春事再世難 No longer be reborn are my spring affairs of yore.

2 撇 means “to cast”, “to fling” but also to mean the left slanting stroke in Chinese calligraphy. It is this later meaning that is taken because of the keywords, 殘陽 and 閑. “across the waters” is added to give more sense in the translation for the reader.

4 Youthful desires of the heart. 再世 can be extended to mean “reincarnation”.

Friday, 12 November 2021

#5

This was inspired as I was trying to trek to the Green Sand Beach. It was a hot day and the afternoon tropical sun was merciless. To make matters worse, the trail was unpaved and the soil was dusty. With each step, a cloud of it would rise and cling onto one’s socks, dying it to a deep orangey brown hue. The locals were enterprising because of the nature of the landscape, no car rental was allowed and so they used their own truck and charge $20 per person for a round trip since the beach was about 3 miles away. Being cheap, I did not take the offer. On asking returning trekkers, I asked if the trip was worth the scene. From their not so enthusiastic answers, I returned back to my car. I had a friend who trekked there and took the $15 trip back on the truck and this is what he took with his camera.

                A three mile trek to the beach.  One can see the truck in the distance. 

The so called Green Sand Beach!

1 坡斜倦路人 The slope is aslant wearying all travelers,
2 車過飛紅塵 Red dust flies as the vehicle passes by.
3 無情下午日 Heartless is the sun from the afternoon,
4 海風何暢神 Even the sea breeze would not lift my spirits.

2 紅塵 usually means the mundane world but in this case, the literal meaning makes sense.

Friday, November 12, 2021

#6

This inspired idea came looking at the cloudy sky while I was floating on my back in the ocean at a secluded spot in Hapuna Beach with no other stranger around. Most were at the main part of the beach. This secret spot is much further away and in the old days, one has to trek through a thick swath of undergrowth. Floating was so much easier due to the salinity of the waters and one could feel the mores of the world melting away.

1 背在波浪仰天浮 Upon the waves, floating my back I looked upwards to the sky,
2 看雲萬化蓋世流 Covering the world, I see the myriad changes in the clouds.
3 紅塵恩怨盡消散 Be it right or wrong, mundane world matters no longer exist in me,
4 漂蕩人生莫强求 Drifting through life, nary a forced thing would I sought.

2 風雲蓋世, “wind and clouds covering the world” means “turbulence of the world”. This line infers the unpredictability of the world. Hence this line can be interpreted as "Looking at the ever changing heroics of the world,"

3 “red dust” – Buddhist term for the mundane world.  

With the new interpretations, the last three lines become,

Friday, November 12, 2021

#7

It was a light drizzle in the night as I trekked through this darkened forest with no lighting to the lava crate about some 4 miles away because the nearer parking lot was overflowed with tourists. It was not an enjoyable walk. It was cold, dank and at the same time, quite exciting, reminding me of my childhood days walking through a dark street. I was telling myself how did I get into this mess.

However, I was truly in wonderment when at the end of the forest path, the area opened to a darkened sky fill with a red glow in the distance. It was as if it was out from a movie scene. This inspired me to the creation of this poem in my mind. By the time I was returning back to the car, the poem was complete but more refinements to be made later.

These white specks of whitish stuff are raindrops taken without the camera's flash

The sky glowed with an eerie red, like a scene out of some movie.

The lava crater...  Those fluffy clouds are steam formed by the raindrops falling on the hot lava.

1 舉頭微霏火山烟 Looking up, drizzling rain in midst the smoke and fire of the volcano,
2 低看黑林兩傍現 Upon lowering, two sides of the dark forest appeared.
3 鐵扇一風地獄寒 One gust of wind from the Iron Fan, hell freezes over,
4 驚震乾坤霎眼前 In a flash, alarming Heaven and Earth before my very eyes.

3 Alluding to the episode of “Princess Iron Fan” in “The Journey West” where Monkey had to trick the Princess of her magical fan to quell the flames of a mountain created from the immortal burning coals of the Patriarch of the Way when Monkey created havoc in Heaven, some five hundred years before.

An exaggeration to be sure. In reality, the gusts of wind felt extremely cold in the rainy night. The smoke and steam were cleared momentarily.

Saturday, 13 November 2021

#8

This was inspired on the road heading to Black Sand Beach in Big Island. The landscape was dramatic changing from jungle green to lava black.

The lava was cleared from the road so that the other side of the island can be reached.  One can see the extent of the lava flow cutting right through a dense forest

The white bones littering all over the lava area.  One has to peer closely to see the green spurts of growth

1 叢林路遙燄石隔 The forest is dense, the road is far, ‘tis where the lava separates,
2 曾經水火殘相殺 Once upon a time, when fire and water battled for their lives.
3 海潮一波四方濺 And now a wave from the ocean tide just crashes and splatters all over,

4 白骨遍地青芽發 White bones still littered and greens start to sprout.

4 The white bones are actually the remains of the bleached trees in the swath of the lava.  Upon a closer look, one can see tiny green plants had started to sprout.  The casualties and new life after a battle between the forces of nature.

Sunday, November 14, 2021

#9

It was another rainy day. I didn’t want to get wet by following my friends into the Akaka Falls. At the same time there was now a $15 parking fee plus $5 per person entry when it was used to be free. As I had been there many times and the area is not safe for tourist cars because in the past they had been broken in by the locals to make a quick buck. It would be a win-win situation for me to remain in the car and with the car parked outside the tourist trap.

The park is at an isolated area and there is no wi-fi for me to play my phone game… Boredom set in quickly when I gazed out of the car’s window. On the side of the slope of dense grass growth there was…

1 車中無聊窗外逢 Boredom in the car where loneliness encountered,
2 郊野翠潤一紫紅 One shade of purplish red in the midst of succulent greens.
3 雨滴蘭香仍未散 Raindrops a drip on the orchid and yet its fragrance still lingers on,
4 久別徘徊何日重 Having to ponder long and hard the day we once more meet.

Monday, November 15, 2021

#10

This was written during the 6 hour flight from Hawaii back to LA.

1 黑暗漸蓋白雲天 Darkness soon covers the white clouds of the sky,

2 紅塵速眠星海遍 An ocean of stars soon blankets the mundane world in slumber.
3 船頭漁火寂寞照 Lonely is the fisherman’s light that shines at the prow,
4 青樓華燈夢豈現 How could dreams appear in the glare of the green bowers.

2 Red dust – the mundane world

3 Single lanterns were employed on the prow of boats to attract squids or other sea creatures for night fishing.

4 Green bowers – brothels. I used “glare” instead of “grandly lit lanterns”

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

#11

There is no such thing as an unending party.  My Hawaii vacation had come to an end and during the long six hour flight home, might as well twiddle my time into something good.  Looking out from the plane's window...

1 霄漢萬里白雲海  A sea of clouds in an endless Heaven,
2 寂寞一方空虛蓋 Draping in loneliness and emptiness.
3 天籟聲無逍遙風 Nary a sound heard from the carefree flowing wind,
4 此處仙鶴亦難來 Here, even celestial cranes would find it difficult to come.

3 After all, one is inside the plane.
4 Cranes are the rides of immortals.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

#12

More time to kill in the plane...

1 機中凌空雲海過 In a  plane soaring high into the sky, a vast ocean of clouds crossed,
2 時辰三段苦悶坐 For long six hours in boredom sat.
3 更比八仙神通快 Faster than the prowess of the Eight Immortals,
4 安飛霄漢莫闖禍 Flying safely in Heaven without incident.

2 Literally, “hours in three parts”. Ancient Chinese hour is equivalent to two modern hours.

3 This alludes to the story of the “Eight Immortals Crossing the Eastern Ocean”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Immortals under the section “In Literature”

4 “The Journey East” 東遊記is about their crossing the Eastern Ocean out of boredom. While each of them display their magical prowess to cross the ocean with their treasures, they cause a disturbance that shook the Dragon Palace of the Eastern Ocean. The Dragon King coveted their treasures but was able to steal one of the Immortal’s treasures. This caused a great battle between the watery denizens and the Immortals. The battle was so fierce that it alarmed the Jade Emperor who eventually had to put a stop to it.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

#13

More inspiration in the plane and was reminded by the sunset and racket of roosting birds in the trees by the Waikoloa Marriott Hotel & Spa.

1 日沉滄海一舟帆 Sunset upon the vast ocean blue - one sailboat,
2 彩霞漸暗人未還 Colored clouds slowly darkened -  no one returned.

3 百鳥巢歸喧嘩聚 Gathered roosting birds in hundreds -- a ruckus made,

4 忽然音絕是晚間 A sudden lull -- the night had fallen.

1 滄 can mean "vast", "blue" or "cold".  So I opted to used most of the meanings together.

4 音 can also mean "message/news" as in 無音信. This ties up nicely with the second line. 

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Regrets in the Gate Of Eternity - 長門恨

This one was inspired by the previous poem…

1 霄漢無情暗月華 Heartless is Heaven in obscuring the light of the moon,

2 長門禁地為奴家 For me, The Gate of Eternity a forbidden zone had become for others.
3 銀屏冷落燭影滅 Neglected is the silver screen and shadows of candles no longer around,
4 淚滴一夜殘金花 Tears throughout the night will tarnish even flowers of gold.

1 The sky denotes the emperor, the Son of Heaven. The moon represents Chen Ah Chiao, Emperor Han Wu Ti's first Empress who was deposed and imprisoned - her beauty and youth laid to waste by the heartless emperor even though she lived in luxury as if she was still the empress.

2 The Long/Eternal Gate was the former the residence of the Princess Royal, Ah Chiao’s mother. It was given to the emperor as a bribe for her indiscretions and liaisons with a younger man after the death of her husband.

3. Literally, the shadows had been extinguished.

4. It can also mean Ah Chiao herself. 金枝玉葉, golden boughs and jade leaves – high born.奴家 (slave family) – A feminine self-deprecating term for “I”, “me”.

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

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Willow Shadows on the Wall - 柳影牆

The words, 柳影牆 came popping into my mind as I doodled in my brush writing practice.

1 暗月微笑柳影牆 Upon the willow shadowed wall, the hazy moon lightly smiled,

2 醉眠忽傳一股香 A sudden fragrance comes to my inebriated slumber.
3 驚破舊夢四周靜 Startled from dreams of yore, silence is now everywhere,
4 朦朧半醒疑未央 Waking groggily in the Palace of Zenith-Not-Yet-Reached, I wondered.

4. The Wei-yang Palace is the main palace of the Han Dynasty and therefore the center of all imperial festivities. This poem alludes to Han Wu Ti’s first empress who was demoted and banished.

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

Wednesday, 27 October 2021

The More Unfortunate...

This was inspired during one of my night walks in the marina. The moon was shining brightly over the waters…

1 又見明月楚江照 Once more seeing the moon shining over the River of Chu,
2 斜對人間莫冷笑 Sneer not as it obliquely faced the mortal world.

3 顰眉一夜迎風歎 All night in knitted brows to welcome the sighing winds,
4 東升西沉更寂寥 Even more boring and lonely is to rise and set unchangingly.

1 The State of Chu was located in the southern part of the Yangtze River and so it can mean “south”.

2 Not enough information to know if the night is still young or not.

4 Literally, “rises in the east and sets in the west”. This poem is trying to console that there are others more unfortunate.

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Untitled - 無題

This was inspired during my daily on a cold autumn day. The original theme was somewhat mundane and took me two days of thinking to come up with an idea that I deemed OK. The refinement and changes took over two months, mostly putting it on the backburner until I was forced to complete it so that I can post the poems written during my Hawaii trip.

1 寒山鐘聲晚來風 The night wind from the Cold Mountain is sending the temple sounds,
2 難盡一杯何相送 ‘tis difficult to finish this toast to your departure.
3 明朝莫訴昨夜恨 When morning comes, speak no more of last night’s regret,
4 拾得紅塵總是夢 Picking up the red dust, in the end, is but a dream.

1 “Cold Mountain” – this refers to the Cold Mountain Temple in Chang Tsi’s (張繼), most famous poem, Night Mooring by the Maple Bridge” (楓橋夜泊), “…姑蘇城外寒山寺, 夜半鐘聲到客船”. The Temple was named after the monk “Cold Mountain”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshan_(poet)

2 Literally, “difficult to finish this cup”

4 This line is ambiguous because of the first two characters. Textually, 拾得 means “able to pick up”. It is also the name of another monk who is a friend of “Cold Mountain”.

“red dust” can also be taken at its face value or a Buddhist term used to denote the mundane world. In the first interpretation, “handling worldly affairs is in the end is but a dream” – to console the author to take things not too seriously. We may part today, but in the future we may meet again.

In the second interpretation, whatever was written by Shide on the mundane world are just exoteric and ethereal like dreams with no place in the real world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shide_(monk)

Sunday, 17 October 2021

Bygones

This poem was inspired when I saw the title of a song, 西安 by Noel Quinland. The wind character was then appended and an idea was formed.

1 長安舊塵昨日風 The dust in the City of Eternal Peace was once yesterday’s vogue,
2往事重重雲烟夢 Weighty is the past but misty dreams of now.
3 月冷西安然依照 And yet the moon still shines coldly upon the City of Western Peace,
4 千杯愁酒亦難逢 Drowned in a thousand cups would still bring no chance meetings back.

1 Chang’an was the imperial capital of various dynasties. It’s pinnacle of glory was reached during the Tang dynasty and after the fall of the dynasty, it was relegated to an ignominious position. For a brief time, it was considered to be the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

3 Chang’an was renamed as Si’an soon after the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Wednesday, 13 October 2021

Old Dreams

On the same day composing 晴天風微皺銀波, this came on my way back from my walk at Point Fermin when I saw a withered leaf lying on the luscious green residential lawn…

1 草上一片枯葉見 Upon the grass, a withered leaf seen,
2 觸起餘生眼前現 What my remaining years would be, flashed before me.
3 秋來寒急紈扇收 Autumn is coming with hurried coldness and my silk fan be put away,
4 忽看金箱舊夢綿 And espied in the golden chest, old cotton clothes of my bygone dreams.

3 Putting away the silk fan because it is no longer needed for the hot summers implies that its usefulness is no more.

4 A golden chest implies wealth and silk fan is for a lady of leisure. The cotton clothes implies that the lady was from very humble origins. Perhaps she was married into wealth because of her beauty and that she lamented that she is no longer alluring in her autumn years.

Saturday, 2 October 2021

It was a very hot afternoon, about 90°F, in San Pedro but at Point Fermin, it was about 20° cooler. No matter how often I took pictures of the scenery before, it never ceases to amaze and inspire me. On the mainland, the sun is bright and hot while the yonder town Avalon like the namesake of the Arthurian legends, is always shrouded in mists; reminding me of Liu Yuxi's poem, “…東邊日出西邊雨，道是無晴卻有晴”.

1 晴天風微皺銀波 Gentle breeze on a sunny day knitting the silvery waves in frown,
2 遙遠蓬萊雲烟鎖 Far away are the Immortals Isles and shrouded in mists as always.
3 仙島雖隔今夜逢 This fairyland, separated we may be but tonight in dreams twain shall meet,
4 觀景莫歎紅塵錯 Enjoy this view of now and sigh not due to wrongs of this mundane realm.

2. The Isles of Penglai in the Eastern Ocean. It is believed that Earth immortals took up residence there. Legend has it that the First Emperor, on the advice of a magician, had himself sent with 500 virgin boys and 500 virgin girls to seek the immortality pills. It is also the Chinese version of how Japan was founded. In Japanese, these islands are known as Horai but quite different from the Chinese version. To them, these islands are west of them, naturally.

Saturday, 2 October 2021

Fishermen’s Life

1 月落西山湖水靜 The lake waters are calm as the moon descends upon the western hills,
2 日破長夢漁舟醒 And daybreak arouses fishing boats from their deep deep slumber.
3 莫怕艱難盡日歌 Dread not of hardships, but to sing all day long,
4 滿歸含歡比月明 A bountiful return will make smiles beaming brighter than the full moon.

2 “the sun breaks long dreams as fishing boats awaken”

4 “bountiful return with smiles contained (in the mouth), compare moon brightness”

Thursday, 23 September 2021

Scapegoating

1 松下悶酒客來遲 My visitor is tardy as I drowned sorrows in my cup,
2 花殘葉舞已秋時 Autumn it must, for withering flowers and leaves are dancing in the air.
3 瞬目流星何復還 And in a blink of the eye, gone is the shooting star, never to return,
4 情斷莫怨金風刺 Blame not the stabbing cold of fall when a relationship has floundered.

1 One of the 歲寒三友 “Three Friends of Winter”. The other two being the bamboo and the plum as they are impervious to the effects of winter. The pine symbolizes longevity, everlasting or uprightness.

4 情 can either be a general relationship or more specifically, love of a sexual nature. I chose the former meaning due to the implication of line 1.  斷 means ended, broken or severed.

Saturday, September 25, 2021

An Updated Poem

This poem was composed and posted on Facebook to a friend in 2013,

觀海聽濤 View the ocean and listen to the waves,
看山醉月 Look at the mountain and be drunk by the moon.
心平緒安 In calmness, peace is in the heart,
夢遠人何 Dreams are far away and people no more.

Then someone changed it to one that rhymes...

觀海聽濤, View the ocean the ocean and listen to the waves,

眺山望巒. Looking from afar at the mountain ranges,
心平緒靜, In quietude, there is calmness in the heart,
夢柔境暖. Sweet dreams of a warm surrounding.

And eight years later, my updated version...

1 觀海聽濤, Some look to the ocean and hear the waves,
2 尋山問道. Others search the mountains and seek enlightenment.
3 桂折功名, Yet more attained worldly success,

4 春去人何. But when spring is gone, where are they now?

1 As the poem is written so concisely that there can be different interpretations. Another translation could be,

I had looked at the ocean and listened its waves,

I had sought enlightenment amongst the mountains.
I had attained the success of officialdom,

But now no longer young, where is that youth?

2 Chinese mystics, immortals etc. live as hermits in order to get away from the mundane world so that they would not be disturbed. In the original text, the word used is “Tao”, as in Taoism.

3 To break an Osmanthus branch is to attain officialdom by passing the imperial exams to lift oneself and family from obscurity. This is the only path opened to all for if one was born a farmer, a farmer till death. The Osmanthus is one of the inhabitants in the moon along with the three-legged toad, the jade rabbit and of course, the moon Goddess, Chang-O.

4 Spring here denotes energy of the living.

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Floating Red - 浮紅

This one was inspired by the instrumental piece, “Terra Cotta Warrior” by Noel Quinland. The music reminded me of the perceived carefree ranked Ch’ing Dynasty concubines swaying their large handkerchiefs in the wind as they trod on their platform shoes. In the end, the theme changed into something else as I remembered a story I read eons ago…

1 閑渡銀橋巾帕揚 Crossing leisurely the silver bridge a kerchief fluffed,
2 靜流金水玉帶長 Quietly flows the golden water and the jade belt is long.
3 深宮禁地出入難 Difficult it is to enter and exit the forbidden palace,
4 唯託浮紅人間嘗 Except to entrust the floating red to sample the ordinary world for me.

1 Just a euphemism for a grand looking bridge. The action of fluffing her handkerchief is to distract her action of dropping the leaf into the waters in case if someone was looking.

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/forbidden-city/inner-golden-water-river.htm

2 The river moat in the Forbidden City is known as the Golden Water or the Jade Belt. Here it just means a stream/ditch flowing through the palace.

4 Usually, 人間means the mortal world. In this context, the world of the ordinary people. The palace is considered to be heaven on earth – the Great Within (大內).

This is an allusion to 流紅記 (An Account of Flowing Red), written in the Sung Dynasty about an event that took place in the Tang Dynasty. A scholar was walking by the banks of the imperial stream flowing out of the palace. Perchance, he espied on a floating red leaf that to him looked unusual and fished it out of the water. On it was a poem,

流水何太急 Why do the waters floweth so hurriedly?
深宮盡日閑 Deep inside the palace where time is spent in idleness.
殷勤謝紅葉 With greatest reverence in thanking the red leaf,
好去到人間 Godspeed journeying to the world of the Great Without.

He surmised that some lonely court lady was lamenting about her life in the lonely palace. He fell in love with her through the poem and could not take her out of the mind. His friends laughed at his callowness. Still, he wrote a reply on another leaf and threw it into the upstream:

曾聞葉上題紅怨 Once I heard that upon a leaf was a girl lamenting her woes,
葉上題詩寄阿誰 But to whom was this poem sent?

Unlike other stories about scholars, our hero did not pass the imperial examinations and resigned himself to the harsh realities of the world. He stayed behind in the capital and became a private tutor to an official’s household. He worked diligently and gained the favor of his employer. One day, the employer told him that from someone from the palace having the same last name as his came to seek protection. She was a court lady to be “retired” at age of 30. He would like to matchmake the former scholar and her as husband and wife. Of course, he could not refuse such an offer from his master. Fortunately, for him, when he saw her, it was love at first sight. After many years of a blissful marriage, the wife, one day, went to the husband’s worktable to clear things up. In a box, she found the red leaf on which the poem was written. She immediately exclaimed that it was her poem! The husband was flabbergasted and she said she too had one red leaf poem and produced it to her husband, which of course is his poem. They told the lord of the household about this miraculous impossibility that came true for both of them. Two poems were then composed by the husband and wife for this joyous occasion,

獨步天溝岸 Alone I walked by the banks of the imperial moat
臨流得葉時 It was then by the current approached that this leaf now beholden,
此情誰會得 Who would know that this love could be had?
腸斷一聯詩 Brokenhearted just because of this poetic stanza.

一聯佳句題流水 One elegant stanza on flowing waters,
十載幽思滿素懷 Ten years of silent thoughts filled the heart with this life’s longing,
今日欲成鸞鳳友 Today that we are now a phoenix pair,
方知紅葉是良媒 Knoweth this moment the marvel of matchmaking this red leaf be.

Sunday, September 12, 2021
Monday, September 13, 2021

Stone Statues Of the Sacred Way - 神道石人

This poem was originally conceived on 09 June, 2015 while looking at a photo of the Tang Dynasty imperial tombs.  Then in 17 August 2018 came a minor update and now almost three years later, still another update...

石頭人上石頭淚,
風擊雨打不停遂.   
神道威武先百年,
唯今能記有幾誰.

石頭人上石頭淚, Upon the stone figures are stony tears,

風摧雨捶拳拳巨.The blasting wind, the pummeling rain each a fist of prodigiousness,

神道威武先百年, And for the formidability of the Sacred Way in the first hundred years,

唯今能記有幾誰. How many of now would remember this?

雨打淚滴石頭人 Tears upon the stone statues in the pummeling rain,

風吹聲歎千秋恨 And sighs of the howling wind during the past thousand autumns.
神道兩傍對無言 Two sides of the sacred way, they faced at each other in silence,
今時威武有誰問 How many of now would ask of their once formidability?

Friday, September 17, 2021

Untitled - 無題

It is good to doodle...

1 枝上梅香滿天紅 Bough laden fragrance of plum blossoms reddens the sky,
2 樹下醉意遍地濃 Under the tress, inebriation permeating deeply into the land.
3 舉杯欲請嫦娥姐 To my big sister, the Goddess of the Moon, I raised my cup to thee,
4 借照銀光侍寢夢 That I may borrow thy light to watch over my slumbering dreams.

3 Chang-O, the lunar goddess.

4 侍寢 literally to serve/attend the bedchamber.  For example, the chamberlain. May have a salacious meaning but in this context, it is otherwise.

Friday, September 10, 2021

Love Eterne

This took me half a day to complete.  It is easy when one has the idea...

1 銀河孤單岸無人 The Milky Way is lonely with no one on its banks,
2 金風寒刺碎花魂 And souls of flowers are shattered by the cold piercing autumn wind.
3 牛郎遠隔織女星 Far apart are the stars of Cowherd and Spinning Maid,
4 總比凡間更殷勤 More can be said of their love than those in the mundane world.

1 Implying that Seventh Night has not come yet.

2 Golden wind symbolizes the approaching autumn.

3 The stars of Altair and Vega. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qixi_Festival

4 How many relationships can last when the lovers can only meet once a year?

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Ants And Grasshoppers

Again, from my brush doodling but took me two days to complete.

1 日破漁舟出 Fishing boats are already out when the day breaks,
2 夜歸晚來泊 And as night approaches, late they are to be moored.
3 高樓紅門宴 The feasts of the powerful and nobility.
4 遊龍長樂客 And the hustle and bustle of their guests in eternal joy.

2 Both 夜 and 晚 can also be taken to mean "late".

3 Literally, tall buildings and doors painted in vermillion red

4 Literally, wandering dragon. 多少恨，昨夜夢魂中. 還似舊時遊上苑. 車如流水馬如龍. 花月正春風 - 望江南 by 李煜.

The nobility usually entertain and sought counsel and advice from itinerant wise men. They would be housed as honored guests. Usually when greater ambitions are harbored in the hearts of the host.

Saturday, September 4, 2021

Autumn Thoughts By The Dresser - Variation V

Another inspiration as I listened to the flute rendition (music starts at 1:48) of Autumn Thoughts By The Dresser

1 秋前雨夜妝台怨 A rainy night before autumn, fretting at the dresser,
2 長江東水月無緣 The long river flowing east but a fated moonless night.
3 隨日盡散雲烟夢 Dreams are like fading mists when the coming morning comes,
4 紅塵誓約抝風攣 Vows made in the mundane world can even bend the wind.

2 The Yangtze River is also known as the long river. All rivers in China flow towards the east because of geographical features of the land.

4 This line has two interpretations - Vows so strong that even winds can be bent by their sheer will or that they so frequently broken that winds bend under their sheer weight.

Tuesday, 31 August 2021

Sins Of Past Life

It was in one of those dream states while doodling nonchalantly on improving one’s handwriting that the mind drifted off to some place far away. This time, the line revealed to me as 又見沙雁東南飛.

1 重見飛雁東南去 Once more flying ansers seen leaving for the south-east,
2 沙漠夕陽幾滴淚 A few teardrops felt as the desert sun sets.
3 後庭孤月西北風 And in the backyard, a lonely moon shines upon the north-west wind,
4 引送妾夢與君醉 Sending this wife’s dream of their once drinking merriments to her Lord.

5 戰塲胡馬日侵亂 By day incursions of barbarian horses create chaos on battlefields,
6 瑤池青鳥夜倦累 And when nights do come, fatigued are the Jasper Pool blue birds.
7 春宵盡散鴛鴦枕 Spring nights had evaporated over the mandarin duck pillows,
8 有緣無份前生罪 Fated to be husband and wife but not in togetherness – Alas, sins of my previous life.

1 Implying that the current location is somewhere in the north-western boundaries of China.

4 引送 – to show, lead the way, to pave the road etc.

6 Blue birds are messengers of the Queen Mother of the West. This line infers that the husband is too tired even to dream after a day’s of battling.

7 Pillows or blankets with depiction of a pair of mandarin ducks symbolizes conjugal bliss as these birds are known to mate for life. This line infers that the bed had not been shared for many years.

8 緣 and 份 both mean destiny but with slight nuances. The former means destined meeting while the later, destined to be part of. Thus, 有緣無份 means the destiny to meet but not in togetherness.

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Broken Promises And Regrets

This life of this poem began with 美人紅 as I doodled with the brush and came up with the following line, 一杯暖壺美人紅.  A day later, I looked at the rough draft and the theme was just as rough.  As I copied the draft over and over again to practise my brush writing that the poem began to morph into a totally different theme.  I remembered reading a book in my youth...

1 金杯傾蕩明皇醉 The golden cup teetered as the Enlightened Emperor became tipsy,
2 夢遊廣寒與仙聚 In his inebriation, he met the fairies in the lunar palace of the Great Cold.
3 惻隱憐心釋孽龍 Out of pity, he released the cursed Dragon of Sins,
4 妖亂天下無安歲 Chaos unleashed, and the world knows no peace from year to year.

5 三百血汗基業散 After three hundred years of blood and sweat... The demise of a dynasty,
6 馬嵬兵變貴妃罪 At the Mawei slope, all blame was put on his beloved imperial concubine.
7 長生誓約白綾斷 The vow made in the Palace of Eternal Life was broken by a white sash,
8 上陽老人寂寞最 Loneliest is the old man in the Palace of Supreme Brightness.

1 The Enlightened Emperor is a title used by the common masses for Tang Hsuan Tsung. The golden cup represents decadence and 傾蕩, the collapse due to wantonness. The emperor began his reign in earnest but in later years became befuddled.

2 Ancient Chinese believes that dreams are the result of the soul leaving the body and went wandering elsewhere. The theme for the first stanza comes from the opening chapter of the novel, 月唐演義. The Emperor paid a visit to the lunar palace. Here 仙 refers to 嫦娥仙子, the goddess of the moon. It is during this visit that he heard the celestial music which inspired him to compose the “Feathered Rainbow Skirt”, a grand musical and dance piece of the Court, when he woke up.

3 The emperor was ruthless in securing his throne. He killed off his rivals including his aunt, the powerful Princess Taiping, the favourite daughter of Empress Wu. His older brother who was the crown prince knew how ambitious his younger is and yielded his position so that he could live in peace, unlike his grandfather’s time. Now in his old age, Tang Hsuan Tsung had grown soft under the beguiling breasts of his favorite concubine. They would indulge themselves in songs, dances and other merrymaking at the expense of running the empire. The theme of this poem is from the opening chapter of the novel, 月唐演義. The emperor dreamt that he flew to the lunar palace. Before the Emperor could meet the goddess of the moon, he came across a chained green dragon begging for its freedom. The kindhearted emperor released it and it escaped towards the north-east and reincarnated as the barbarian general which lead to the eventual demise of the Tang Dynasty. The novel is mainly about the adventures of the White Tiger spirit sent down to earth to subdue the Green Dragon.

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

4 I had deliberately used 安 instead of 寧 because it is the last name of the An Lu Shan.

5 The Tang Dynasty lasted about 300 years. Like in line 4, 基業, foundation, etc. is also a pun to mean the “enterprise of the emperor” because his personal name is 李隆基.

6 The place where Yang Guifei committed suicide. A white silk sash of three foot long was the preferred way of death for the high born in a dignified way. Usually, for women. The last Ming emperor hung himself from a tree in the Coal Hill Garden in the Forbidden City.

7 Name of the palace where the emperor and his beloved made their eternal vows on the Seventh Night.

8 Name of the palace where the “grand emperor” resides in retirement. Though living sumptuously, the former emperor felt loneliness without his beloved. He even hired a Taoist priest so that he could have a glimpse of her. The story goes that the priest went to the lunar palace and found her. As evidence, he brought back her comb broken in half to show that she had become an immortal and all that is past is in the past. They shall meet again when the time comes.

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Autumn Nights

My mind wandered off to a literary dream as I was listening to some nondescript background music. Unconsciously, I began to write the characters on the paper…

1 夏色盡退秋霄漢 Faded are the colors of summer and the sky is now of autumn,
2 楓葉萬紅菊花黄 Endless reds of maple leaves and chrysanthemums in yellow.
3 日速夜長夢更多 Days are fast and nights a slow but even longer are fretful dreams,
4 月無彩霞寂寞寒 Alas, the lonely moon is cold without colored clouds for a wrap.

1 霄漢 actually means the galaxy/universe and the Milky Way. It is now generally to mean “the heavens, skies”

2 Literally, “ten thousand red”. Autumn is the season when chrysanthemums begin to bloom.

3 夜長夢多has a negative connotation as sleep is punctuated by fretful dreams.

4 The author must have felt sorry for the moon as he is draped in warm clothing.

Wednesday, August 25, 2021