Why Think Of The Past? 何憶當初?

"To write well is to write something you know".  This line from the movie, "I Remember Mama" resonates too well with me. I was waiting impatiently for the doctor to have look at me and rather than just staring at the blank white walls, I took this downtime to put into good use.  I jotted down my draft on a piece of paper towel, least I may forget.

There was too many 不 and I wasn't pleased. After monkeying around, they were eliminated. 

The second line, 莫似花魂來春愁 translates into “unlike the souls of flowers and next spring saddened” makes no sense at all. If a pause is effected after the 4th character, the rest of the line indicates someone was lamenting that flowers do come back beautifully as ever in the next spring.  However, life is not like this. I find this line too obscure to figure it out.  Changes are needed.

Also, the flow from one line to another is not natural enough for me. Then during the dead of the night, I got up and was unable to go back to sleep. So, in my mind’s eye, I began to change things around until I was satisfied. Slumber then drifted sweetly into my eyes.

Translating directly gives no sense of the intended feeling felt in the Chinse version.

1 江水東去不回頭 The east flowing waters - never to return,
2 今年殘花明春茂This year's withering blossoms - next spring's luxuriance.

3 隆冬一朝醉夢醒 Then one frosty morning, my days of wine and roses are over.
4 何憶當初令人愁 Why remember what was once to make oneself fret.

1 Chinese rivers flow from west to east due to the Himalayas. In Chinese poetry, the flowing waters means the ever flowing passage of time.

2 They are not be the same flowers but they look the same.

3 Literally, “One harsh winter's morning, an inebriated dream was woken”. The harsh winter here represents some kind of ordeal. 

4. Really more of a rhetorical question.

Tuesday, June 1, 2021