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