Incomplete Storytelling

This poem was inspired when I was doodling with my calligraphy. The words, 深夜靜時淚聲聞 came into my mind. This is the second poem of the day. I had to leave it as I had plenty of other things to do. At dinner, I had a very strong Vietnamese coffee and after sleeping for two hours, I woke up at 1am wide awake and my mind was racing and was able to come up with the rest. Obviously, I did not get any sleep till the next morning after playing my video game.

Currently, I have no idea on expanding a few more stanzas to tell a better story. It is too abrupt to end the second stanza in this way. Perhaps, in the future, I may come up with a better storyline… For now, it’s just a place holder for my future muse to inflame my passion.

1 夜闌靜時涙泣聞 Late into the night when all is quiet a sobbing was heard,
2 隔牆哭啼見無人 But I see no one over the wall.
3 偷望窗外暗月濛 Stealthily through the peered window is a dimly lit hazy moon,
4又恐步出遇幽魂 Too afraid to venture out in case an apparition met.

5 五更雞鳴索一尋 Crowing rooster at the hour of the fifth that the cause dared to seek,
6 風過銀漢摘星辰 Through the River of Silver, the wind plucks away at the stars.
7 共同今生歲月流 As time passes by in togetherness we lived,
8 嬌妻奇遇渡紅塵 In this mundane world, a pretty wife fortuitously encountered.

5 A Chinese is equivalent to two standard hours. Midnight is the 3rd hour. It is believed that all ghosts and apparitions vanish when the rooster starts crowing to signal the coming of dawn.

6 River of Silver is the Chinese term for the Milky Way. With the coming of dawn, stars and constellations are disappearing as though the wind is tucking them away.

Thursday, January 20, 2022