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

Poetic Setting Vs Reality

In reality, one was in the dining area writing while the other was in the kitchen preparing salad for lunch!

1 君在東窗字書畫 By the east window, my Lord is doing his calligraphy,
2 妾向後庭撲蝶華 While his beloved is heading towards the courtyard to frolic butterflies.
3 花月成雙敬醉紅 Two pledging under the moonlight and flowers to tipsiness in red,
4 莫羨廣寒伴飛霞 Envy not the moon accompanying the flying colored clouds.

1 君 is an honorific term referring to the husband.

2 妾 is a diminutive term for referring to oneself, the wife. Ancient Chinese considers using direct pronouns as rude.

3 花月means a beautiful scenery.

4 The “great cold” is the name of the lunar palace because only the moon goddess, the jade rabbit, a three-legged toad and an Osmanthus tree live there. Either because of her sin in stealing the elixir pills from her former husband or that she ate the pills to prevent him from being a tyrant living forever, she lives in loneliness.

Rather to have short-lived happiness than living in perpetual loneliness.

Monday, August 23, 2021

Destiny

Another doodling inspiration when I was updating a previous poem.

小帆自在渡長江 Little sailboat crossing the Yangtze River with nary a care,
無向漂蕩隨波浪 In no particular direction, it goes along with the current.
晴日順流雨天逆 On sunny days, smooth sailing and on rainy days against the flow,
總到東海水茫茫 Eventually, the vastness and great waves of the Eastern Ocean reached.

Rivers in China flows towards the east because of the geography of the land. Legend has it that the God of Water and Fire had a battle. The Fire God was so enraged that he lost the battle and charged at one of the pillars that supported the earth and knocked it down. The Goddess Nuwa had to use the Five-Colored Stones to repair it and the heavens. However, it is slightly lower and hence the direction of Chinese rivers.

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Heavenly And the Mundane

Another inspiration during my brush writing practice...

1 鵲橋急急渡霄漢 The magpies in haste to span a bridge across the heavens,
2 斜照江水秋月寒 While the cold nadir moon shines upon the river waters.
3 歌曲長樂醉嫦娥 Songs, an eternal joy to inebriate the lunar Goddess,
4 萬朶華燈映花黄 In the reflected glow of countless lanterns, colors of flowers fade away.

5 來風一陣掃夢破 A sweeping wind startled my dream of revelry,
6 莫似天淚霎時亁 Unlike streaks of heaven’s tears, ‘tis difficult for mine to dry.
7 低歎楚曲千首奏 In lowered sighs, a thousand southern melodies I sang,
8 沉星力盡寢西岸 Till lethargic slumbering stars descend into the western banks.

1 On the Seventh Night, magpies form a bridge for the Cowherd and the Spinning Maid to meet once again. 霄漢 actually means the heavens and the Milky Way.

3 長樂 can also mean long pieces of music with a change of tone in the pronunciation of 樂. The moon Goddess, Chang-O is a lonely deity living in the lunar palace, called the “Great Cold” with the jade rabbit, the three legged toad and an Osmanthus tree. The earthly gaiety of the mortal world reminded of her past.

4 Yellow in this case refers to the brown yellowish color of withered flowers. I lifted an opening line from “Princess Flower” 帝女花, a Cantonese opera - 倚殿陰森奇樹雙, 明珠萬顆映花黃.

3-4 While earthly joy may be short lived, the eternal loneliness of the heavens is eternal.

7 楚歌 originally means the songs from the State of Chu. It can also mean a forlorn mood as one steps into danger. This came from 四面楚歌 when the founder of the Han Dynasty, Liu Pang used the native songs of his adversary, Hsiang Yu in the night to distract his troops by making them long for their hometown and lose their zeal for battle the next morning. As the state of Chu is situated in the south, it can also mean songs from the south as in 楚天, the southern skies of Chu.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Far Away From the Maddening Crowd - 遠離紅塵喧囂

Another doodling inspiration.

1 天池一帆水上浮 Upon the heavenly pool, one sailboat a floating,

2 平靜無顧看波流 In calmness, serenity begets by gazing into the currents.
3 待月高照解胸懷 Wait till the moonrise for the heart to be loosened,
4 風塵此隔莫再愁 Frown no more with this parting from the turbulence of the mundane world.

1 The reflection of the sky on the ocean.

2 流 can also be used as a verb.

3 Truth is like the purity of the moon, clear and unhidden. “troubles lifted from the chest” is the original wording but sounds unnatural in English.

4 Literally, “wind and dust”.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Peach Blossoms - 桃花

Another doodling inspiration...

枝上桃花隨風嬝 Bough bound peach blossoms swaying delicately with the wind,
欲在清溪水上漂 Desiring to float on the clear waters of the stream.
春光嫵媚更添色 Seductive spring colors enhancing the beauty of her face,
莫曉落時是寂寥 Ignorant that when blossoms fall is also a lonely time.

Sunday, August 15, 2021

Two Versions

The first line came into my mind and took me quite awhile to come up with a theme when I was visiting Arashiyama’s famous bamboo forest. The next day, while I was practising my calligraphy using the poem when I got an idea of a Chinese theme based on the keywords. I could not decide which poem is better and decided to keep both.

1 歌舞台上千層淚 Hidden in the songs and dances on the stage lies the many layers of tears,
2 尋香亭下無限醉 At the bottom of the Pavilion of Fragrance Seeker is deep stupor of no end.
3 浮世三味訴盡難 ’tis difficult for the shamisen in the Floating World to tell its every story,
4 渡月橋央何時聚 And when will we ever meet again at the Moon Crossing Bridge.

5 雲台歌舞千層淚Hidden in the songs and dances on The Cloud Terrace are the many layers of tears,
6 玉砌階下無限醉 And at the bottom of the jade imperial staircase is deep stupor of no end.
7 梅楊爭艷水烟夢 The plum and poplar blossoms vie in beauty but in the end, just a misty dream.
8 七夕長生莫再聚 After the Seventh Night in the Palace of Life Forever, reunions are no more.

1 歌舞 – Song and dance could be the short for the Kabuki Theater, 歌舞伎

3 浮世 – Ukiyo, the floating world of the pleasure quarters in the red light distract of old Japan

三味 – Three flavors, short for 三味線, the Japanese banjo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo-e
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiwara

4 The Togetsu Bridge is one of the scenic views in Arashiyama, Kyoto famed for the cherry blossoms and autumn colors on the slopes of Arashiyama.
5 It could mean the terrace is so high that it reaches the clouds

6 玉砌 - built from jade. Actually, high quality white bricks used exclusively by the imperial family. Green jade only gained popularity during the late Ch’ing Dynasty because the fondness of them by the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi. “Mutton white fat “the most treasured jade color. 階 - steps leading to an elevated platform where the throne is situated. It can also refer to the emperor himself. 階下 is often translated as “your Majesty”.
When the Forbidden City was built by the Ming Emperor Yongle, “gold bricks” 金磚were used especially for laying out the palace grounds.

https://www.shine.cn/feature/art-culture/1806236982/

7 The plum here refers to 梅妃, the previous favorite before 楊貴妃 came along. It is said that the Plum Concubine is slender while the Poplar Concubine is full bodied.

8 Seventh Night – the Chinese version of Valentine. It is said that on this night, at the Palace of Eternal Life that the Emperor Tang Hsuan Tsung and his favorite, Lady Yang, pledge themselves to an eternal love. Perhaps, due to their hubris, a few months later, the An Lu Shan Rebellion erupted and on route to Szechuan, the imperial guard refused to proceed further unless the emperor forced her to hang herself for causing the woes of the empire.

Monday, August 9, 2021

Weltschmerz

1 高樓芙蓉西畔眠 By the tall mansions, west bank lotuses lay in sleep,
2 醉翁醒後月當前 Awakened from his stupor, the old man looked at the moon.
3 欲訴萬世情冤深 Deep grievances of a thousand lifetimes, he would bemoan,
4 寒光總是對無言 But In the end, the cold light gave no reply.

5 流星滾滾回岸無 Furious are the meteor showers but in the end, there's no return,
6 五更時份金雞現 And when the fifth hour approaches, the golden rooster will appear.
7 舉頭問天天不應 Head a lifted to ask Heaven but reticent it remained,
8 低眉歎盡碎心田 Brows lowered in sighs of a shattered heart.

1 In the old days, 芙蓉 also refers to lotuses as well. Nowadays, it refers to hibiscus only.

2 Obviously a servant or the gate keeper out on the grounds. No self-respecting Chinese nobleman/gentleman worth his salt would camp out in the open when his home is at hand.

3 An exaggeration.

4 The reflected moonlight from the lake, implied by the “west bank” in the first line.

5 Like an upturned bowl of water, what is spilt can never be returned to the bowl.

6 The Fifth Watch - between 4am – 6am. In the old days, special watchman was hired to be an “alarm clock”, telling time every two hours by striking his bamboo cylinder and gong according to the time. The rhythm varies from place to place and usually is accompanied by the watchman saying something, “like be careful fires” etc to warn the neighborhood of nocturnal dangers.

The God of the Solar Hours, 昂日星官 regulates the hours of the day or attends to the rising morning sun. As such, his true form is a golden rooster. He is also one of the officials in the 28 constellations. In the poem, the golden rooster refers to the rising sun.

8 Though 夢 can be used as a verb, “to dream” but then it makes no sense as the person is now awake as implied in the 2nd line. Thus, it is an adjective. 低眉 is lifted from Po Chu-i’s “Ballad of the Pipa”, 低眉信手續續彈

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

An Imperial Concubine's Dream - 貴妃夢

I was refining a line in a previous poem about the Seventh Night and suddenly this line came barging into my head…

人間又唱楊妃夢

1 大唐天子富無窮The emperor of Great Tang is rich beyond dreams,
2馬嵬白綾淚染紅But on the slopes of Mawei the white sash is drench in tears of red.
3 七夕誓約長生許 On the Seventh Night, a vow made in the Palace of Eternal Life,
4 民間又唱楊妃夢 And now among the common masses, they sing of the Lady Yang’s dream.

1 Referring to the Tang Hsuan Tsung.



2 When the rebellion of An Lu Shan was approaching Changan, the emperor went on an “inspection tour” of the Szechuan province. At Mawei Slope, the imperial guards refused to move on unless the Emperor’s favorite was allowed to hang herself on a white sash of three feet long. They believed she and her family were the cause of their current plight. In order to save his skin, the emperor had no choice but to acquiesced to their demand.



3 Without any given context or those familiar with the allusions, the line means “On the Seventh Night, a pledge was made that they are allowed by heaven to have a long life together”. Here “Eternal Life” is the name of the Palace. On their last Seventh Night together, they pledged their unending love for each other. How ironic that a few months later, the rebellion came…



4 The love between Emperor Hsuan Tsung and Yang Guifei became a celebrated theme in Chinese poetry, plays and operas. Po Chu-I had immortalized them in his famous poem, 長恨歌 “The Song of Unending Sorrow”.

Saturday, August 14, 2021

A Windy Inspiration

On a very windy jogging day…

1 風大葉亂花可憐 Strong is the wind, flowers a scattered, what a pity,
2 驟雨催打雙飛燕 The sudden rain, beating upon the swallow pair.
3 簷下安棲悄無聲 By now had tucked safely under the eaves in the quietude of the nest,
4 獨我墨對燭淚前 Alas but me in silence, facing the tears of the candle.

2 A pair of swallows denote a devoted and loving couple

4 Candle wax dripping like tears

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

The Immortal Isles - 蓬萊

This poem was inspired by the photo taken of the fog enshrouded Catalina Island on a Sunday on the mainland.

1 西岸晴日東海霧 Sunny on the west bank and foggy in the Eastern Ocean,
2 蓬萊隱若去無路 The Blessed Isles fading in and out with no road to them.
3 說近不近天涯角 To say it’s near but they are at the world’s end,
4 玩弄凡塵眼前露 For the mortal realm is being taunted by appearing in front of their eyes.

1-2 The islands in the Eastern Ocean where immortals dwell.  It is said that the First Emperor of China sent a fleet of 500 virgin boys and 500 virgins there in order to gain the pills of immortality.  In actual fact, to get away from the tyrannical rule and to settle into the new lands.  Of course, the Japanese refused to believe that they were descended from these new settlers.

Friday, August 13, 2021

Phantasm

It started with the phrase that came into my mind...

雲居處

Many tries to complete but all seemed trivial and unnatural. Two days later, while in bed thinking of some lines for another poem, 雨落水滴終去東 that I finally came up with this…

1 黄昏雨後見無人 No one is around dusk after the rain has gone,
2 逍遙螢火點花魂 And unhurried fireflies began to wake the souls of flowers.
3 醉意夢遊雲居處 In drunken stupor, I dreamt of the place where clouds live,
4 共同嫦娥弄星辰 And with the Goddess of the Moon, we frolicked and teased the stars.

2 點 as a verb means “to touch” or “to light up” and used figuratively as “to wake”. The souls here refers to the fragrance of the flowers.

3 “where clouds live” is a place of impossibility. More of a philosophical question of where clouds sleep and rest after their day long travels.

4 I had chosen 嫦娥 rather than other poetic terms since line 3 infers the fairy realm and this continues on the theme. 弄 may also mean “to manipulate” since the light of the moon can affect the appearance of stars, as if toying with them as in this phantasm.

Thursday, August 5, 2021

Dreaming Of Blue Birds

1 雨滴成流漸向東 Dripping raindrops - forming into rivers - slowly head to the east,
2 風狠花落再無逢 Merciless is the wind - blossoms scattering - twain shall never meet again.
3 蓬萊信絕情已盡 Nary a message from paradise when love is no longer around,
4 青鳥探看總是夢 And when blue birds do come, it would only be in dreams.

1 All rivers in China flow in an eastward direction due to the land’s geography.

3 蓬萊 – The Blessed Isles in the Eastern Ocean where immortals dwell. 

4 青鳥 – Blue birds are messengers of the Queen Mother of the West. The last two lines are reminiscent of Li Shang Yin’s “此去蓬萊無多路, 青鳥殷為探看”

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

Thursday, August 5, 2021

Retirement

This poem takes poetic licence to paint a pretty picture of an idyllic life. In real life, I was in the car under some shade of a building waiting for mundane chores such as grocery shopping to be done. Unless one when one is six feet under, removal of such life’s accoutrements is simply not possible. We truly had became creatures of modern comfort.

1 萬里晴天不見雲 For ten thousand miles, nary a cloud in the sunny skies,
2 柳樹蔭下作曲韻 By the willows, under it shade, setting rhyme to songs.
3 兩袖清風無限貴 Upright incorruptibility is such a rare and precious trait,
4 榮華棄盡心未貧 Riches and glory forsaken and yet the heart is never poor.

1 An exaggeration of the vastness of the sky.

3 In ancient days, the well to do have long sleeves with inside pockets to hold personal items such as strings of coins, etc. “Two sleeves of pure breeze” means the person is upright, virtuous and never took bribes.

4 The first line refers to one cannot escape from responsibilities, trials and tribulations in the mundane world. Just like seeking refuge from the heat i.e., seeking protection under the wing of the  powerful. When all material accoutrements of life are forsaken, peace of mind and tranquility can truly be attained.

Monday, August 2, 2021

Sunflower

The first line came from nowhere, the second from the doodling as I practised writing the first line with a brush. However, could not find a theme for it. Two days later, while refining a previous poem and changing one character, everything fell into place.

雲山霧海夕陽西 
夜臨可憐向日葵

1 雲山海燕夕陽西 Mountains locked in by the clouds, sea swallows flying in the setting sun,
2 夜臨可憐向日葵 Pity the sunflowers as night approaches.
3 月寒光照冷空房 The moon is cold, shining into the frosty and empty bedroom.
4 寂寞重演舊夢歸 Loneliness once more enacted, longing for old dreams to return.

1 Swallows symbolize the happiness of married couples. It is sunset and time for the bird to return to their roost. The mountains here refer to the Immortal Isles in the Eastern Ocean, the Chinese version of paradise.

2 Sunflowers came about from a Greek myth. A girl fell in love with Apollo but the god has nothing to do with her. She pined for him by looking at the sun. When she died from unrequited love, she was turned into the sunflower and forever looking at him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clytie_(Oceanid)

Monday, August 2, 2021

Life's Too Short And So Are Dreams

1 夜闌焚香參玉兔 Deep into the night, burning incense and praying to the moon,
2 瓊花艷影何須妬 Envy not the beauty of the Queen of the Night in the shadows.
3 人生夢短醉良宵 Life's too short and so do dreams, so let's be drunk this fine night,

4 莫待年華明朝盜 Wait not till daybreak robbing thy youth away.

1 Incense in the form of joss sticks is an integral part of Chinese way of burning offerings to the gods.

2 The flower is half hidden in the shadows like a coy beauty and that makes it look seductive.  It is not the poet who is in the shadows admiring its beauty.  This explicit in the original version but not in the translation.

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

3 Refers to the one night bloom of the flower, i.e. that youth is such a fleeting time.

4 明朝 does not mean Ming Dynasty but the next morning, hence the tone for 朝 is of a higher tone.

Friday, July 30, 2021

The Golden Mean

1 茫茫苦海回頭岸 Vast is the ocean of bitterness but always the shore upon turning back,
2 新人舊夢重演看 Performances of old dreams repeated with new cast for all to see.
3 昨日曾似枝上鳳 Seems like yesterday, on the highest bough is the phoenix perched,
4 嵗月無情髮滄滄Time passes unrelentingly and hair now in snowy white.

5 年華富貴盡無窮 Unending richness of youth,
6 春風醉意好時光 Springtime is here and is good to be in tipsiness.
7 青松傲笑天下人 Green pines sneering haughtily at the world of men,
8 古柏默哭紅塵嘆 And ancient cypresses in silent weeps, sighing at the mortal realm.

1 From the saying, 苦海無邊, 回頭是岸. “The Ocean of Bitterness is boundless, turning back is the shore”. The ocean refers to the ocean of humanity. If one repents, salvation is at hand. There are those who asked the question, if the ocean is boundless, how can there be a shore? If there is a shore, the ocean cannot be boundless. The answer is that one has to stand somewhere first and the boundlessness is relative to the sight of the one looking at the ocean. The land is salvation. In the Three Character Classic, the first line is 人之初, 性本善 – The beginnings of man, good is their nature. This means that it is the environment that changes our basic nature.

3 From the common expression, 野雞飛上枝頭變鳳凰 (The wild chicken flies to the top bough and turns into a phoenix) which derives from the couplet “舊巢共是銜泥燕, 飛上枝頭變鳳凰” – the swallow’s old home just mud next built with the mouth, the moment it flies to the bough, it turns into a phoenix. The phoenix is the queen of the birds and usually represent the empress. Thus the saying means, someone comes through his humble beginnings and is not meant to be flattering or congratulation.

6 The aged cannot enjoy things when one is young – from the viewpoint of the young urns who think not of the future. They are supermen now.

7 Pine trees symbolizes longevity. However, the use of 青, green here denotes the in betweens – from the viewpoint of that they thought that their accumulated knowledge is the ultimate truth.

8 Cypress is another symbolism for longevity. This time, 古, ancient is used for emphasis – from the viewpoint of those who really had lived to know better. That is, a balance life is most important – the Doctrine of the Mean, 中庸 .

Thursday, July 29, 2021