Another doodling inspiration. This time it took me about a week refinement in the original and translation even though the first draft was done in a an hour. It was much easier if one has put on the headphones and hearing a favorite song over and over again for that extra push.
1 仙霞紫泉胭脂楊 Fairy clouds rouged the willows in the Palace of Purple Springs,
2 莫羨長生與霓裳 Envy not the Palace of Eternal Life and the Rainbow Skirt.
3 漁歌浣女日西回 As the sun sets, fishermen’s songs return and so would the silk-washing girls,
4 閑度門前風晚涼 And pass the time relaxing in the cool night air by the front of their homes.
6 四月飛雪滿地翔 Snowflakes in the Month of Four flying all over the ground.
2 莫羨長生與霓裳 Envy not the Palace of Eternal Life and the Rainbow Skirt.
3 漁歌浣女日西回 As the sun sets, fishermen’s songs return and so would the silk-washing girls,
4 閑度門前風晚涼 And pass the time relaxing in the cool night air by the front of their homes.
6 四月飛雪滿地翔 Snowflakes in the Month of Four flying all over the ground.
7 凡事來去總是夢 The comings and goings of mortal affairs are just dreams,
8 水向東流空一塲 Like waters flowing east -- an exercise into emptiness.
1 Purple Spring is a pool where its purplish waters are frequented by fairies. It is also a name of a river in the Tang Capital of Chang An (長安, Eternal Peace). Its original name was 紫淵, the Purple Pool. However, during the Tang Dynasty, the name clashed with the personal name of Li Yuan (李淵), the founder of the Dynasty and hence the name change. Even names of gods had to be change in order to avoid such name taboos. Guan Yin 觀音, the Goddess of Mercy is an example. Her original name was 觀世音 (to see the sounds of the vulgar world) because the name of the second Tang Emperor, Li Shih Min contains the same character of 世. Here, it refers to the capital city, now known as Sian (Western Peace), the first cosmopolis in the world.
In ancient times, 楊 refers not to the poplar but to the willow (蒲柳, Salix sinopurpurea). A willow is also a personification of a pretty girl whose waistline is as slender as willow boughs and its swaying leaves to that of the girl in dance. Another interpretation is that 楊 is the last name of the imperial consort of the Tang Emperor, Hsuan Tsung. When she died, an empire collapsed around her skirts. A not so direct translation would be “Lady Yang” or “Imperial Concubine Yang” but the fun on language play is lost. The next line confirms this interpretation.
8 水向東流空一塲 Like waters flowing east -- an exercise into emptiness.
1 Purple Spring is a pool where its purplish waters are frequented by fairies. It is also a name of a river in the Tang Capital of Chang An (長安, Eternal Peace). Its original name was 紫淵, the Purple Pool. However, during the Tang Dynasty, the name clashed with the personal name of Li Yuan (李淵), the founder of the Dynasty and hence the name change. Even names of gods had to be change in order to avoid such name taboos. Guan Yin 觀音, the Goddess of Mercy is an example. Her original name was 觀世音 (to see the sounds of the vulgar world) because the name of the second Tang Emperor, Li Shih Min contains the same character of 世. Here, it refers to the capital city, now known as Sian (Western Peace), the first cosmopolis in the world.
In ancient times, 楊 refers not to the poplar but to the willow (蒲柳, Salix sinopurpurea). A willow is also a personification of a pretty girl whose waistline is as slender as willow boughs and its swaying leaves to that of the girl in dance. Another interpretation is that 楊 is the last name of the imperial consort of the Tang Emperor, Hsuan Tsung. When she died, an empire collapsed around her skirts. A not so direct translation would be “Lady Yang” or “Imperial Concubine Yang” but the fun on language play is lost. The next line confirms this interpretation.
2. The Palace of Eternal Life is where Tang Hsuan Tsung and his beloved concubine, Yang Guifei made their pledges of eternal love on a certain Seventh Night – a sort of Chinese Valentine when the stars Altair and Vega meet. Originally, 宮 means the residence/shrine of a deity. Since the emperor is the Son of Heaven, his place of residence… 殿 is also translated as “palace”, but used for official duties and administrative purposes. Originally, The Rainbow Skirt is a multi-colored skirt worn by Yang Guifei in a court dance choreographed by her and music composed by the emperor.
3. Dyed silks are washed in flowing rivers to remove excess dyes and are usually done by girls. It could be just the family’s daily laundry. The most famous one is Hsi Shih, 西施 who is said to lead a happy and carefree life before she was made into a femme fatale to ruin her country’s adversarial kingdom of Wu. This line is reminiscent of Wang Wei’s 竹喧歸浣女.
5. 態, poise, state, form, mannerism, glamour etc., refers to Lady Yang’s bewitching attributes. 情 refers to the simple joys of the peasantry. With the passage of time, everything turns to dust or becomes moot.
7. Most of the time, 凡事 means everything. Here it is short for 凡間事情. Not to be confused with 凡是, “everything that is in a set” or “no matter what”.
8. Rivers in China flow towards the eastwards unless hindered by local geography because their sources comes from the Himalayas which is west of China. Flowing waters denote the passage of time and in the end, the waters are lost into the ocean.
Friday, February 5, 2021
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