An Updated Poem

This poem was composed and posted on Facebook to a friend in 2013,

觀海聽濤 View the ocean and listen to the waves,
看山醉月 Look at the mountain and be drunk by the moon.
心平緒安 In calmness, peace is in the heart,
夢遠人何 Dreams are far away and people no more.

Then someone changed it to one that rhymes...

觀海聽濤, View the ocean the ocean and listen to the waves,

眺山望巒. Looking from afar at the mountain ranges,
心平緒靜, In quietude, there is calmness in the heart,
夢柔境暖. Sweet dreams of a warm surrounding.

And eight years later, my updated version...

1 觀海聽濤, Some look to the ocean and hear the waves,
2 尋山問道. Others search the mountains and seek enlightenment.
3 桂折功名, Yet more attained worldly success,

4 春去人何. But when spring is gone, where are they now?

1 As the poem is written so concisely that there can be different interpretations. Another translation could be,

I had looked at the ocean and listened its waves,

I had sought enlightenment amongst the mountains.
I had attained the success of officialdom,

But now no longer young, where is that youth?

2 Chinese mystics, immortals etc. live as hermits in order to get away from the mundane world so that they would not be disturbed. In the original text, the word used is “Tao”, as in Taoism.

3 To break an Osmanthus branch is to attain officialdom by passing the imperial exams to lift oneself and family from obscurity. This is the only path opened to all for if one was born a farmer, a farmer till death. The Osmanthus is one of the inhabitants in the moon along with the three-legged toad, the jade rabbit and of course, the moon Goddess, Chang-O.

4 Spring here denotes energy of the living.

Tuesday, 17 September 2013