Untitled - 無題

This was inspired as I waited for my zither class. The teacher’s playing is really marvellous and as I sat, my mind started to wander off and words started to form in my mind… A scene appeared for the first two lines but took me some time in the same sitting that the poem was completed on. I was a bit proud of myself…

1 九重靈霄寂寞界 The celestial palace in Ninth Heaven is a lonely realm,
2 四海人間繁華世 Within the Four Seas is the mortal world of hustle and bustle.
3 凡心若動偷下降 And if mortalness of the heart arose and descended in stealth…
4 冬寒影飛雪花麗 Winter’s cold in swirling shadows and flowers of snow are beautiful.

1 It is believed that there are nine tiers of heaven. In the highest tier is the Palace of Spiritual Sky where the Jade Emperor holds court. As any place of decorum and seriousness, it is a boring and place of dowdiness.

2 The Chinese believe that there are only four oceans than encompass the world in the four cardinal directions. Translating to English equivalent – Seven Seas is also correct but to lose some of the local flavour of the source language. How one translates depends on the targeted audience.

3 There are many stories of heavenly immortals and fairies descending down to the mortal world because of a moment’s fleeting desire of the mortal world. There is an unbreakable rule in Heaven – that celestial denizens are not allowed to go down to the earth as this shows their lack of cultivation. If the rule is broken, then the offenders are punished accordingly. The punishment meted out is based more or less according to the whims of the one handing down the sentence. It is not unlike those of the Greek Gods. For example, the infraction for the Spinning Maid is that she and her beloved are doomed to an eternity of separation except for one night in the year. Others are luckier. They are sentenced to become a mortal for the duration of its destined lifetime, during which they must suffer immensely to learn and see the futility of what is deemed as humaness. Life on earth is looked upon as something of a passing dream, a brief moment of reality. In the end, only to be woken up in eternal sorrow. It is this sorrow of regrets that one must strive to cast away in order to achieve salvation. However, this rule does not apply to earth immortals, that is immortals living in the Blessed Isles of the Eastern Ocean. I suppose because they are not ranked. In Chinese mythology, there is no God in the western sense. Gods are defined as immortals who are given an official rank and live in the sky; just like the Son of Heaven on earth and his ranked officials.

4 “Flowers of snow” is a poetic term for snowflakes. This sarcastic line means that when having gone down to the mortal world, only to find winter and flowers had withered and gone. Unless one has special abilities like the plum blossoms which they flower best in harsh winters, what more is there to go on? Then they realized that stirring of earthly feelings had stripped them of their celestial status but not of their immortality and is forced to live an even lonelier life as they no longer are allowed to return to the skies. This is their ultimate punishment which reminds me of the real story of Pandora Box. It is said that Hope did not escape from the box so that humanity can have something to clench on living. This is fallacy. What Zeus did is really insidious. Its first name is False. What satisfaction is there for Zeus if mortals die off too quickly and without struggles for his pleasure? Indeed Greek Gods can be very vengeful.

Actually, 花 refers to 花花世界, the teeming world of transient sensual pleasures. Snowflakes are fleeting as they will eventually turn into clumps of ice and snow.

Sunday, February 20, 2022