Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Paradise Dreaming - 蓬山夢


I was doodling with paper and pencil while waiting for my Hero Wars Game to finish its missions…

1 霧鎖蓬山洞外天 Fog engulfing paradise and the world beyond the grotto,
2 風雲萬里遠綿綿 Unending turbulence of the world is far far away.
3 月渡銀漢星無光 And when the moon crosses the River of Silver, stars will be dimmed,
4 棄世修道隔塵烟 This mortal place I abandoned, the Way I sought, tainting not myself in worldly dust.

5 青松冷淡千載秋 The cold and drab green pines are still here after a thousand autumns,
6 紫檀珍貴焚香善 Precious purple sandalwood - only to be burnt like incense.
7 不份逍遙一生夢 If alas, enlightenment is not meant to be, a life of carefree dreams then.
8 若緣騰飛九霄殿 But if so destined, to Ninth Heaven’s palace, I’ll be soaring to.

1 Grottos are the abodes of immortals when they practise their austerity and seeking enlightenment.

2 Literally, “wind and clouds”

3 The moon refers to the enlightened and the stars, the common masses. Milky Way – the river of silver.

4 “worldly dust” – affairs of the mundane world.

5 The pine tree has no great commercial value and hence able to survive for a long time.

6 On the other hand, sandalwood is highly sought after for their fragrance. Honolulu is known as the Sandalwood Mountain. The trees were fell and sent to China to be burnt as incense and hardly are there any left today. Lines 5 and 6 say that it is better to be under the radar. To become prominent is a dangerous thing.

8 It is believed that the Chinese Heaven has nine layers. The topmost layer is where the Jade Emperor held court. The palace is called 靈霄殿. Palace of Spiritual Heaven. 宮 and 殿 are palaces with the former being the residence of the emperor and the later is used for administrative purposes.

Monday, January 24, 2022








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