Seeking Immortality?

Although this poem was inspired the gorgeous sunset of the Islands, what started off was something very mundane and contrite.  By the I got back from the stroll, as if my mind was on hashish and imbuing an opiate dream during this pandemic restriction...  Words just came flowing out of the brush while listening to the 葬心 (Buried Heart) instrumental over and over again... Even now, as I am posting it on this blog, I am still clueless what I had written then. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzMHv0r9dAY

陣陣無限向山尋 Gust after gust, endlessly towards the mountain sought, 

層層不絕對岸吟 Rank after rank, unceasingly to the shore in sighs. 

海道陽斜海道浮 A sea lane of the sun aslant, a sea lane afloat, 
一波浪銀一波沉 One wave crested, another sunk. 

蓬萊遠近將鎖恨 The length and breadth of paradise will soon be enshrouded in regret 

紅塵高低未銷淫 Rights or wrongs of this mortal world, not yet fully indulged. 
借問長短人世何 To ask whether the world of living be long or short? 
還答多少苦海深 The answer lies in how many oceans of bitterness be shallow or deep. 

Originally, it was just about the wind blowing at the mountains on the island and waves crashing onto its shore...  

The character for an immortal is a man beside a mountain - 仙.  

So perhaps, the person seeking immortality is like the waves forever touching the foot the Blessed Isles, but never set foot upon the place because of worldly ties still tethered?

遠近, 高低, 長短 and 多少 have multiple meanings and thus subject to many creative interpretations and translations. This translation is only just one of them. 

Wednesday, January 20, 2021