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