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
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
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