Ducks In the Pond

While doing my daily walk, this time at the ‘alligator’ park, I saw this scene and took a picture of it. Unfortunately, the iphone is no match for the resolution power of the human eye. The captured image does not do justice to the real thing.  I came up with the following two lines.

鴨橋一道銀波水
逍遙看世無顧慮

However, I could not think of a good pivotal line to complete the poem. Therefore, no choice but to put it away for the time being. The next day while walking on the winding hill path in Friendship Park, these two lines came into my head,

路遙彎彎人生短 
黄河滾滾白雲遠

Again, I could not complete the poem.  At the same time, I did not find this good or interesting enough by itself to warrant a new poem. Later in the day after my walk, I hit on the idea to combine both poems. The first line of the second poem can be the pivotal point. With this in mind, the structure and theme slowly coalesced into a reality. Of course, the language and wording has to be further refined. In the end, I have this little creation...

1 一字鴨橋銀波水 By the silvery ripples, ducks formed a bridge like the Chinese character for one.
2 靜立世音觀莫淚 Shedding no tears, they stood and looked quietly amongst the earthly sounds.
3 路遙崎嶇人生短 Life is short and its path never runs smooth from its ups and downs,
4 看破紅塵更無慮 Upon seeing through this mortal world, nary a worry be.

1 The Chinese character for the numeral one is just a horizontal line. 立 can also mean "independent".

2 Either the watchers are oblivious to their surrounding or their tears had run dry from all the endured pain and suffering.

3 崎嶇 means craggy or life’s hardships

4 看破紅塵 is a Buddhist term for being disillusioned with the world and hence to become a monk to withdraw from all its woes and joys.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Earthly Bonds Yet To Be Broken

While walking on a Sunday afternoon by the Marina, worked out the structure and theme using the same rain theme from the last poem about a rainy night.

1 驟雨夜臨南柯醒 The night rains came abruptly driving away my Southern Bough Dream,
2 醉生難再逍遙請 No longer so carefreely would an invitation to a life of inebriation comes.

3 莫說凡塵情未了 Speak not of the still unbroken bonds with the mortal world,
4 銀燭殘光透到明 The light is dying - yet in brightness through the silver candleholder.

1 The actual wording is “awakened”. “Dream of the Southern Bough” -https://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2011/02/dream-of-southern-bough-chinese-antz.html

2 The dream is broken and is difficult to return to the same one and so it is with the past.

4 Cultural difference - white is for mourning. Red is auspicious and all other purposes. Hence 銀燭 means a silver candleholder.

The first part suggests imagery 風燭殘年 (declining years like a candlelight wavering in the wind), which can be snuffed out at any moment.

The last three characters are adapted from Po Chu-I’s 斜倚薰籠坐到明 because originally, the character used was 點, “to lit”. With 透 means “to go through” or “penetrate” it can also mean "bright".

Saturday, April 23, 2022

When Night Rains Ask Of Dreams - 雨夜問夢時

Couldn’t sleep and was turning and tossing. An idea was formed in my mind.  Finally, when the general structure was outlined, I was able to fall asleep but the rains came, waking me from my dreams…

1 夕陽西別染天紅 The setting sun bids adieu to the west, tainting the sky in fiery red,
2 風雨夜臨問誰夢 Night rains then came inquiring who are still in dreams.
3 房滿燭光不迎客 A roomful of candlelight to keep out that unwanted guest,
4 曉眠醒來怨相逢 Resenting upon awakening at the chance meeting in a morning dream.

1 Everything here is a personal personification that is a shared human common experience. It is up to the reader to extrapolate their own experience.

2 夢 is used as a verb.

3 The guest here refers to darkness of the night. 房 refers specifically to the bedroom. 屋is a house, 家 is family or a place where one feels is in a family environment. No one receives guests in a boudoir except in a brothel setting.

4 The poem does not indicate whether those chance meetings are real or imagined. This is not important. The main point is that sleep is not welcomed so that dream would not enter under the cover of darkness.

Friday, April 22, 2022

Tears Of The Milky Way - 銀河淚

The first two lines were inspired by doodling on the paper,

夜臨玉露初甦醒
西畔銀河始漸升

However, two days later, while strolling in the Wilmington Park...

1 紫霞更紅晚來急 As night approacheth in urgency, purple clouds became more fiery,
2 玉露初降沾花濕 And blossoms are tainted fresh by the descending dew.
3 暗香遲疑豈願散 How is it still lingering? Still hesitating? And unwilling to disperse,

4 隕世流星銀河泣 Leaving their realm, the Milky Way weeps for its falling stars.

1 Due to the angle of the setting sun, clouds seem brighter as night encroaches. Of course, in doing so, it also destroys them.

2 玉 here means white, like the color of mutton fat, the traditional favorite color for jade.  Only in the very late Ch'ing Dynasty that green became the favored color due to the taste of the Empress Dowager. 

Moisture weakens the scent of flowers.

4 隕 means “to descend”, “to decay”. A variant form is 隕 is 殞 - to die. 隕石is a stone falling from the sky, hence a meteorite. 

“falling star” is a poetic term for meteorite and so is 流星 for 隕星.

隕世 means “to leave the world”. In the context of the poem, the world refers to the celestial realm. Meteor showers are like tears shed from heaven.

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Lifting From The Masters

Walking in Wilson Park and trying to exercise my mind as well. In the end, it was certain words and help from the masters that cinch the final creation.

1 金屋寂寞無人見 No one sees loneliness is the Golden House,
2 爐香烟盡難入眠 ‘tis difficult to sleep when the scent of the incense burner is gone.
3 曾經瑤池花芙蓉 Once a lotus blossom in the Jasper Pool,
4 今時斷根草野賤 But now some despicable wild grasses with broken roots.

1 The first four characters came from Li Shang Yin’s 金屋無人見淚痕. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Jiao for the “golden house” reference. It also means a place of great luxury. Usually, Chinese word order in poetry does not change the meaning significantly. However, this is such an example. If it is written as 金屋寂寞見無人, then it becomes “Loneliness of the Golden House sees no one”!

2 This line came from Li Po’s imagery, “日照香爐生紫烟” and the second half from Po Chu-i’s “斜倚薰籠坐到明”

3 “Jasper Pool”, a magical pond in the garden of the Queen Mother (西王母)of the West. Thus something of great quality. The modern meaning of 芙蓉 is hibiscus but in the old days, it is the lotus as in 水出芙蓉, “the lotus blooming out of the water”

4 The last two lines were inspired by Li Po’s “昔日芙蓉花, 今成斷根草. 以色事她人, 能得幾時好”. Wild grasses grow rampantly without constraint but since their roots are broken, they cannot grow with abandonment. The former Empress is all in name a prisoner in the house of gold.

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Two Versions

The black mirror-like lake gave rise to the first line and after revisions and refinements, it became,

1 湖平水靜烏雲皺 Calm and quiet is the lake but dark clouds wrinkling the surface,
2 鏡中歲月使人愁 The aging image in the mirror makes one sad,
3 曾經花魁十二釵 Once upon an Oiran with twelve hairpins,
4 今日草野河邊柳 But now just a blade of wild grass by the river's willow trees.

1 The smooth surface of the lake looked wrinkled by the reflection of the churning dark clouds.

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oiran

Version 2 after many weeks of reworking and refining...

1 湖水浮影烏雲皺 Reflections on the lake’s waters are wrinkled by darkened clouds above,
2 西畔停飛白鷺愁 And upon the west bank, sorrowful are white egrets no longer in flight.
3 世外靈芝豈何缺 How could there be lack of elixir in the realms beyond this mortal world?
4 鏡中歲月難挽留 And neither will Time in the mirror be frozen.

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Seductions Of Paradise

It was a bright and sunny day on the mainland.  Upon entering Friendship Park, the views of the Catalina Islands were spectacular. The channel was filled with fog and inspired me to a new creation… However, the end result was not to be completed till a few weeks later due to lack of ideas.

1 昨日銀波微風皺 Yesterday, silvery waves were gently wrinkled by the breeze,
2 而今雲海凡塵候 But now, a sea of clouds as the mortal world awaits.
3 阻隔蓬山去路斷 For the way to the Immortal Isles are now cut off,
4 前後媚色人心誘 Seductive scenes of then and now tantalize the human heart through and through.

1 “Yesterday, the ocean was clear and waves reflected in silvery white by the sun”.

2 There are many meanings of 候 – to ask, to wait attentively, attend to, to inquire, to forecast etc. Some meanings such as “seasonal”, “a period of five days” can be eliminated. However, some like “waiting respectfully”, “border watch tower” or “station (noun)” make sense but the context eliminates some of them. It is up to the imagination of the reader to resolve in how they would like interpret the poem.

雲海 - a sea of clouds

海雲 - sea fog

4 Whether it the path to the Immortal Isles is clear or not, it will be always tantalizing.

Friday, March 25, 2022