No Longer Favored - 失寵

While doodling during my Chinese brush writing, line 5 came into existence.  For a few days, I could not come up with something decent.  Two days later, line 1 came into existence and was able to compose the next three lines.  Then I got stuck for the second verse.  However, line 5 came to the rescue.  The final version is the culmination of many refinements including ideas influenced by the English translation.

 

1 日落巫山月東興 Upon Mt. Wu the sun sets and the east moon rises,
2 星暗銀河風無情 Nonchalant are the winds as stars dimmed the Milky Way.
3 淚滴杯傾酒未盡 Tears a drip, cup a tilt and still not enough wine to go.
4 燭光婆娑夢豈成 Glistening under the feeble candlelight, how can dreams come by?

5 花鈿點翠玉琵琶 All dolled up in finery with blue feathered pins, this lute of jade,
6 觸弦不意舊曲聽 Unintended, lambent strings became songs of old.
7 醉笑群歡夜樂長 Giddy laughter at the pleasure amassed in a night of unending revelry,
8 撥袖騰舞伴孤迎 A grand sweep of the sleeves, dancing high, a welcome companion to the lonely.

1 Mt. Wu ("witch mountain") is a euphemism for a place where lovers trysts took place, based on a story about the King of Chu (楚懷王) having an afternoon relation with the Goddess of the Mountain.

5 花鈿 are beauty marks painted on the forehead during the Tang Dynasty. Yes, the same concept of the official look of Queen Amidala in Star Wars. They can also be made from other materials that can be pasted in the forehead or cheeks. The danglers are known as 步搖 (step swayers). All these are meant to catch the eye of the beholder. 

點翠(羽翠) are ornaments - usually for the hair - made from blue feathers of the kingfisher. The stiff ones are from the wings or tail (totaling about 28 in an adult bird) and the softer and even tinier are from the undercoat. There were several edicts during the Southern Sung Dynasty to ban this fashion statement. Not only it was an all-time-consuming process as each single strand had to be taken apart and put back together to conform to the desired shape, but the birds can only be found in the tropics, then considered as barbaric places. The practice finally died out when bluer modern materials were available at a much cheaper cost after the fall of the Manchu Dynasty. The western equivalent would be the feather craze adorning women’s hats in the 19th century.

8.  The original last character was 影 and the line translates to "A grand sweep of the sleeves, dancing high to the shadow of one".  I am still ambivalent to both imagery.  However, 迎 has a better sounding lower tone in Cantonese.  No difference in Mandarin.

Saturday, January 30, 2021