Hawaii Inspired

 

These inspirations came from my trip in Hawaii. I am not a great fan of travelling and at the same time, had been there many times before.  Since I had to go, they are the silver linings. Grouping these thirteen pieces in one place, I won't have to title them individually.

#1

This was composed to kill time during the six hour flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii.  Vacation here I come!

1 愁酒一杯向天舉 A cup of bitter wine raised to the sky,
2 當初長生七夕許 In the Palace of Eternal Life, on the Seventh Night of then, a promise made.

3 霓裳羽衣歌樂盡 No longer around are the song and dance of the Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Dress,
4上陽寂寞今宵淚 Tonight’s tears are the loneliness of the Palace of Supreme Brightness.

2 The palace where the Emperor Hsuan Tsung and his beloved concubine made their pledges to each other during one Seventh Night. It is also a play based on Po Chu-I’s poem, The Everlasting Sorrow about their ill-fated love.

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

3 A grand repertoire purportedly choreographed by Yang Guifei and set to music by the Emperor himself. Music and dance were considered integral parts of a whole, each dance would have a piece of music associated with it; the word for music 樂therefore can also refer to dance.

4 The retirement palace of the aged emperor after his beloved was forced to be hanged on his orders during their flight from Changan to Szechuan when the imperial guards refused to go further as they believed she was the root cause of the An Lu Shan rebellion.

Sunday, 7 November 2021

#2

This was inspired by a night walk in the park. However, it was not completed until I was trying to kill time away during a six-hour flight to Hawaii.

1 窗前明月照後庭 Bright is the moon shining outside the window on the courtyard,
2 池中波水接花映 Ripples in the pond receiving the reflections of flowers.
3 舉頭問天手一杯 Lifting my head I asked Heaven with a cup in hand,
4 嫦娥嬌笑拒相迎 O Goddess of the Moon, you refused my welcome and yet coyly smiled.

2 Flowers here can refer to the ladies of the green bowers!

Monday, 8 November 2021

#3

I was walking on the Waikiki Strip late in the morning. The stores had not opened yet even though the sun was high. Stores here don’t opened until 11 or 11:30am. It was getting hot and muggy to walk under the sun even when the continuous cool sea breeze was blowing. Only when in shade did the condition became ideal.

街上行人夜海風 Passers-by on the street, sea breezes of the night,
輝煌商店馬遊龍 Hustling and bustling, stores glamouring in light.
十年更改客顏新 A decade of changes, faces of shoppers anew,
唉憾失去舊日夢 With a heave and a sigh, lost are the dreams of yore.

Tuesday, 09 November 2021

#4

This was inspired by the sunset at the Wailoakola Beach Marriot Hotel & Spa.

1 遠在天邊碧海帆 Far into the world's edge is a sailboat upon the ocean blue,

2 殘陽一道撇水閑 A carefree stroke across the waters is a path of dying sunlight.
3 今刻曾經眼前花 Flowers of then now before my very eyes,
4 舊日春事再世難 No longer be reborn are my spring affairs of yore.

2 撇 means “to cast”, “to fling” but also to mean the left slanting stroke in Chinese calligraphy. It is this later meaning that is taken because of the keywords, 殘陽 and 閑. “across the waters” is added to give more sense in the translation for the reader.

4 Youthful desires of the heart. 再世 can be extended to mean “reincarnation”.

Friday, 12 November 2021

#5

This was inspired as I was trying to trek to the Green Sand Beach. It was a hot day and the afternoon tropical sun was merciless. To make matters worse, the trail was unpaved and the soil was dusty. With each step, a cloud of it would rise and cling onto one’s socks, dying it to a deep orangey brown hue. The locals were enterprising because of the nature of the landscape, no car rental was allowed and so they used their own truck and charge $20 per person for a round trip since the beach was about 3 miles away. Being cheap, I did not take the offer. On asking returning trekkers, I asked if the trip was worth the scene. From their not so enthusiastic answers, I returned back to my car. I had a friend who trekked there and took the $15 trip back on the truck and this is what he took with his camera.

                A three mile trek to the beach.  One can see the truck in the distance. 

The so called Green Sand Beach!

1 坡斜倦路人 The slope is aslant wearying all travelers,
2 車過飛紅塵 Red dust flies as the vehicle passes by.
3 無情下午日 Heartless is the sun from the afternoon,
4 海風何暢神 Even the sea breeze would not lift my spirits.

2 紅塵 usually means the mundane world but in this case, the literal meaning makes sense.

Friday, November 12, 2021

#6

This inspired idea came looking at the cloudy sky while I was floating on my back in the ocean at a secluded spot in Hapuna Beach with no other stranger around. Most were at the main part of the beach. This secret spot is much further away and in the old days, one has to trek through a thick swath of undergrowth. Floating was so much easier due to the salinity of the waters and one could feel the mores of the world melting away.

1 背在波浪仰天浮 Upon the waves, floating my back I looked upwards to the sky,
2 看雲萬化蓋世流 Covering the world, I see the myriad changes in the clouds.
3 紅塵恩怨盡消散 Be it right or wrong, mundane world matters no longer exist in me,
4 漂蕩人生莫强求 Drifting through life, nary a forced thing would I sought.

2 風雲蓋世, “wind and clouds covering the world” means “turbulence of the world”. This line infers the unpredictability of the world. Hence this line can be interpreted as "Looking at the ever changing heroics of the world,"

3 “red dust” – Buddhist term for the mundane world.  

With the new interpretations, the last three lines become,

Friday, November 12, 2021

#7

It was a light drizzle in the night as I trekked through this darkened forest with no lighting to the lava crate about some 4 miles away because the nearer parking lot was overflowed with tourists. It was not an enjoyable walk. It was cold, dank and at the same time, quite exciting, reminding me of my childhood days walking through a dark street. I was telling myself how did I get into this mess.

However, I was truly in wonderment when at the end of the forest path, the area opened to a darkened sky fill with a red glow in the distance. It was as if it was out from a movie scene. This inspired me to the creation of this poem in my mind. By the time I was returning back to the car, the poem was complete but more refinements to be made later.

These white specks of whitish stuff are raindrops taken without the camera's flash

The sky glowed with an eerie red, like a scene out of some movie.

The lava crater...  Those fluffy clouds are steam formed by the raindrops falling on the hot lava.

1 舉頭微霏火山烟 Looking up, drizzling rain in midst the smoke and fire of the volcano,
2 低看黑林兩傍現 Upon lowering, two sides of the dark forest appeared.
3 鐵扇一風地獄寒 One gust of wind from the Iron Fan, hell freezes over,
4 驚震乾坤霎眼前 In a flash, alarming Heaven and Earth before my very eyes.

3 Alluding to the episode of “Princess Iron Fan” in “The Journey West” where Monkey had to trick the Princess of her magical fan to quell the flames of a mountain created from the immortal burning coals of the Patriarch of the Way when Monkey created havoc in Heaven, some five hundred years before.

An exaggeration to be sure. In reality, the gusts of wind felt extremely cold in the rainy night. The smoke and steam were cleared momentarily.

Saturday, 13 November 2021

#8

This was inspired on the road heading to Black Sand Beach in Big Island. The landscape was dramatic changing from jungle green to lava black.

The lava was cleared from the road so that the other side of the island can be reached.  One can see the extent of the lava flow cutting right through a dense forest

The white bones littering all over the lava area.  One has to peer closely to see the green spurts of growth

1 叢林路遙燄石隔 The forest is dense, the road is far, ‘tis where the lava separates,
2 曾經水火殘相殺 Once upon a time, when fire and water battled for their lives.
3 海潮一波四方濺 And now a wave from the ocean tide just crashes and splatters all over,

4 白骨遍地青芽發 White bones still littered and greens start to sprout.

4 The white bones are actually the remains of the bleached trees in the swath of the lava.  Upon a closer look, one can see tiny green plants had started to sprout.  The casualties and new life after a battle between the forces of nature.

Sunday, November 14, 2021

#9

It was another rainy day. I didn’t want to get wet by following my friends into the Akaka Falls. At the same time there was now a $15 parking fee plus $5 per person entry when it was used to be free. As I had been there many times and the area is not safe for tourist cars because in the past they had been broken in by the locals to make a quick buck. It would be a win-win situation for me to remain in the car and with the car parked outside the tourist trap.

The park is at an isolated area and there is no wi-fi for me to play my phone game… Boredom set in quickly when I gazed out of the car’s window. On the side of the slope of dense grass growth there was…

1 車中無聊窗外逢 Boredom in the car where loneliness encountered,
2 郊野翠潤一紫紅 One shade of purplish red in the midst of succulent greens.
3 雨滴蘭香仍未散 Raindrops a drip on the orchid and yet its fragrance still lingers on,
4 久別徘徊何日重 Having to ponder long and hard the day we once more meet.

Monday, November 15, 2021

#10

This was written during the 6 hour flight from Hawaii back to LA.

1 黑暗漸蓋白雲天 Darkness soon covers the white clouds of the sky,

2 紅塵速眠星海遍 An ocean of stars soon blankets the mundane world in slumber.
3 船頭漁火寂寞照 Lonely is the fisherman’s light that shines at the prow,
4 青樓華燈夢豈現 How could dreams appear in the glare of the green bowers.

2 Red dust – the mundane world

3 Single lanterns were employed on the prow of boats to attract squids or other sea creatures for night fishing.

4 Green bowers – brothels. I used “glare” instead of “grandly lit lanterns”

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

#11

There is no such thing as an unending party.  My Hawaii vacation had come to an end and during the long six hour flight home, might as well twiddle my time into something good.  Looking out from the plane's window...

1 霄漢萬里白雲海  A sea of clouds in an endless Heaven,
2 寂寞一方空虛蓋 Draping in loneliness and emptiness.
3 天籟聲無逍遙風 Nary a sound heard from the carefree flowing wind,
4 此處仙鶴亦難來 Here, even celestial cranes would find it difficult to come.

3 After all, one is inside the plane.
4 Cranes are the rides of immortals.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

#12

More time to kill in the plane...

1 機中凌空雲海過 In a  plane soaring high into the sky, a vast ocean of clouds crossed,
2 時辰三段苦悶坐 For long six hours in boredom sat.
3 更比八仙神通快 Faster than the prowess of the Eight Immortals,
4 安飛霄漢莫闖禍 Flying safely in Heaven without incident.

2 Literally, “hours in three parts”. Ancient Chinese hour is equivalent to two modern hours.

3 This alludes to the story of the “Eight Immortals Crossing the Eastern Ocean”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Immortals under the section “In Literature”

4 “The Journey East” 東遊記is about their crossing the Eastern Ocean out of boredom. While each of them display their magical prowess to cross the ocean with their treasures, they cause a disturbance that shook the Dragon Palace of the Eastern Ocean. The Dragon King coveted their treasures but was able to steal one of the Immortal’s treasures. This caused a great battle between the watery denizens and the Immortals. The battle was so fierce that it alarmed the Jade Emperor who eventually had to put a stop to it.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

#13

More inspiration in the plane and was reminded by the sunset and racket of roosting birds in the trees by the Waikoloa Marriott Hotel & Spa.

1 日沉滄海一舟帆 Sunset upon the vast ocean blue - one sailboat,
2 彩霞漸暗人未還 Colored clouds slowly darkened -  no one returned.

3 百鳥巢歸喧嘩聚 Gathered roosting birds in hundreds -- a ruckus made,

4 忽然音絕是晚間 A sudden lull -- the night had fallen.

1 滄 can mean "vast", "blue" or "cold".  So I opted to used most of the meanings together.

4 音 can also mean "message/news" as in 無音信. This ties up nicely with the second line. 

Tuesday, November 16, 2021