Dreaming Of A World No Longer In Existence

This was inspired by a night walk on the Marina…

萬點微蒼銀河星,

千杯醉月仍未醒.

I was stuck for the entire night and couldn’t proceed any further. However, on the next day, while committing the lines to paper when new words flowed out easily without hinderance. More refinements were made when I started to digitize the poem from the calligraphy practice.

1 萬點 醉星已不明 No longer bright are the myriad of drunken stars,
2 千杯花月仍未醒 Sobriety has yet to come to the inebriated moon and flowers.
3 幻夢一世山河改 A lifetime spent in fantasy - dreaming of a world gone by,
4 春江夜色難以成 And this springtime river in the night rings no longer true.

1 Treating 明 as “to understand” gives rise to a deeper meaning to the poem.

2 “Flower moon” means “a beautiful scenery”. It is also a name for the second lunar month and a formation in the game of "Go”.

3 山河 literally means “mountains and rivers” is synonymous with 江山, “rivers and “mountains”. The extended meaning is “the landscape of the country” and is further extended to mean imperial China. 山河is neutral and therefore the preferred usage of today. The reason I used this modern term is that it sounds better in Cantonese.

Northern Chinese prefer to name rivers as河 than 江. Perhaps the difference is the flow characteristics between northern and southern rivers. The southern ones tend to be calmer. As place names in the old days, 河 usually refers to the Yellow River and 江 as the Yangtze Kiang.

4 Day is breaking as inferred by the first line and even though the day scene may be beautiful in the day but no longer in quietude, at least to the one still asleep in stupor. 春江夜色 was inspired by the song, 春江花月夜, which in turn was inspired by the poem of the same name. For the astute reader, all characters in this song’s title are contained in the poem.

http://www.chinesetolearn.com/tang-poem-%E5%BC%A0%E8%8B%A5%E8%99%9A-zhang-ruoxu-%E6%98%A5%E6%B1%9F%E8%8A%B1%E6%9C%88%E5%A4%9C-chun-jiang-hua-yue-ye-flowery-moonlit-night-spring-river-lyrics-pinyin-english-translation-audio/

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

傲笑江湖 - Laughing At The Mundane World of Strife

This was inspired during a walk at Pointe Vincente …

1 朝朝銀湧水潮潮 Each and every morning, silvery surges coming in with the tide,
2 歲月何日莫擊峭 When will they stop striking at the precipitous cliffs?
3 紅塵風波捲萬仇 Turmoil of the mortal world embroiled in endless vengeance,
4 江湖怨恨傲一笑 And to hatred and grievances of the rivers and lakes just laugh it off in carefreeness.

3 “red dust” a Buddhist term for the mortal realm.

4 “rivers and lakes” is a phrase to mean the world of martial arts which operates independently of the mainstream society. It is also a world having its own rules and is out of reach of the laws in the country because of their martial arts prowess; almost like the early days of the wild-wild west where the best gunslinger is law unto itself.

This line was inspired from an audio storytelling of Semi Gods & Demi Devils, 天龍八部 and remembered 傲笑江湖, another martial arts novel I once read in my youth. The title means to live a carefree life in a mundane world of strife.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smiling,_Proud_Wanderer

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

One Summer's Day

While taking a walk in the alligator park, this line -  閃閃銀光滴滴淚, came into my mind but in the final version, it was not used.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_(alligator)

1 閃閃微波無憂慮 Ripples glimmering in carefreeness, 
2 銀湖西畔蘆葦醉 And inebriated reeds upon the western banks.
3 夏日晴天靜觀世 Quietly watching the world goes by on a sunny summer’s day,
4 水上飛禽鵝群聚 Birds gliding on the water's surface where geese congregate.

Monday, May 16, 2022

Untitled

The skeletal idea was first written sometime in late April or early May but was left alone until today that I got the inspiration to finish it.

1 孤獨明月看池塘 Bright is the solitary moon looking at the pond,
2 水中寒宮冷相望 The watery lunar palace stares back in coldness.
3 天上恩怨凡塵淚 Whatever gratitude or grievance made in heaven becomes tears on earth,
4 銀光故意照空牀 Deliberant is the silvery light shining upon the empty bed.

2 Technically 宮, is the abode of a God. Since the emperor is the Son of heaven, his residence is therefore so named. Translating it as a palace gives an air of luxury while “shrine” does not. In Japan, the original meaning is still used. A 殿 is a palace structure used solely for administration, usually translated as “hall”.

3 When heavenly beings break celestial laws such as harboring impure thoughts of love, leaving heaven without permission, etc., they are punishment by permanent banishment or be sent down to earth to suffer a mortal life so that they can be enlightened once again. Seems that the form of punishment is arbitrary and dependent on the mood of the enforcer. For example, Pigsy in the “Western Journey” was permanent banishment from heaven for trying to flirt with the Goddess of the Moon while Sandy, suffered the same fate for breaking a crystal goblet accidentally during a celestial banquet. Weaver Girl - for sneaking down to earth and married to a mortal. Her punishment is eternal separation from husband and children except for one night of reunion on Seventh Night. In “Madam White Snake”, the heroine was “told” by the Queen Mother of the West to go down to earth to satisfy her debt with her savior by marrying him before she could return to heaven and cast away her demon snake origins. 

Sunday, May 15, 2022

One Mid-Autumn Night

This one came on the heels of the previous poem while walking in the marina.

1 中秋月明照如常 Bright is the Mid-Autumn moon shining as usual,
2 半壺已冷守寒窗 By the icy window, half the jug is already cold.
3 五更無情催日破 Hastening daybreak is the heartless hour of the fifth,
4 千杯萬醉夢不長 Even in drunkeness of a thousand cups, dreams can never be long.

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival

2 寒窗, cold window usually means a place of poverty but in this context, the literal meaning is taken. It is not known whether the poet is looking through the window looking at the moon or that he is just staring at the window.

3 A Chinese hour is equivalent to two western hours. Midnight is the third hour and hence 6am is the fifth.

4 Obviously an exaggeration. Even with a small cup, a thousand of them will cause alcohol poisoning!

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Homecoming

This came about while my mind was wandering during a calligraphy practice…

1 七夕雙星銀河回 On Seventh Night, twain stars shall meet in the Silver River,
2 九月重陽金花滿 And golden blooms filled Double Ninth in profusion.
3 一年相隔喜笑淚 One year of separation, now be tears of mirth,
4 萬里急趕聚合歡 Ten thousand miles hurrying back for the joy of reunion.

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qixi_Festival

 2 “golden flowers” refers to chrysanthemums which is prolific during the Double Ninth Festival.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Ninth_Festival

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

A Very Windy Day

It was a very sunny late afternoon but the wind was very strong…

1 風聲滔滔柳枝橫 Like thunderous roar of waves, the winds swept the willow boughs flat,
2 鴨湖滾滾波水蠻 And the waters of the duck pond roared like barbarians.
3 可憐逍遙徑上人 Pity the carefree travelers on the roads,
4 走石群飛路艱難 That thickly flying pebbles making their paths difficult.

Monday, May 9, 2022

Fading Beauty

After working on the previous poem, I had a chance to converse with Ryan Law and found that we have common interests other than writing Chinese poetry. His two literary writings that I had read, were more uplifting and about the zest of life. Mine are about declining mortality, wishing to escape into the realms of immortality. I can safely surmise that Ryan is a much younger person. This poem is inspired by the picture below that he sent to me.

1 夕陽胭脂色漸退 The rouge of the setting sun is fading away,
2 夜徑無人寂寞淚 And the path weeps in loneliness as no one is around.
3 水白波銀仍未暗 The waters are still white, its ripples still silvery, yet to be darkened,
4 鏡中曾經添紅醉 Once an addition of red, the mirror would be drunk in her beauty.

1 This line could be construed as a woman’s fading beauty.

2 No more visitors and she weeps in loneliness. This can have a very salacious interpretation but needs a stretch of imagination that I would not elaborate. 淚 as a noun “loneliness” becomes an adjective phrase and as a verb, “loneliness” is personified.

3 Her virtue and chastity remained true to one, hope is alive…

4 Now even with applied rouge on her face, beauty will never be brought back. It could also be the person in the mirror who got drunk by the beauty.

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Unexpected Inspiration Source

Like the California drought, my well of creativity was drying out. Thank goodness I chanced to look up the profile of a member in Facebook’s Chinese Poetry Group, Ryan Law. I was both impressed and inspired by a couplet he wrote… The words 夕陽 triggered a gush of temporary respite.

夕陽深淵非為也, 嵩山霚練建吾華.

This new poem started off as a four-line poem but due to technical difficulties and other reasons, it was expanded to four more to give it a sense of closure while I was contemplating on the other poem that was inspired by a photo that Ryan had sent me with another poem he had written.

1 殘霞力倦夜難禁 The residual evening clouds no longer have the strength to keep Night at bay,
2 縹緲風至江曲暗 Across the river, came wafting along with the breeze is a faint melody.
3 觸回梨園舊陳事 Evoking long gone memories of the Peach Garden,
4 停杯欲想誰家音 Pausing the cup, I thought of the tune and the one behind it.

5 銀河萬點雙星淚 The myriad points of light in the Milky Way are but tears of the Twin Stars,
6 歲歲朝朝滴滴深 Year after year, day after day, drip after drip, each so deep.
7 舉杯問天嫦娥伴 Raising my cup, I asked Heaven for the Goddess of the Moon as my companion,
8 廣寒寂寞照芳林 And the Palace of the Great Cold shines in loneliness over the fragrance of the forest.

2 Somehow 縹緲峰, the Peak of Ethereality, was triggered in my mind. This was a place in the martial arts novel, Heavenly Dragon In Eight Parts aka Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (for commercial success), 天龍八部, where it was a refuge for a pugilistic master. 峰 and 風 have the same sound. The idea in this line is lifted from Tu Mu’s 泊秦淮, A Night Mooring at the Chin Hwai River.

3 Pear Garden was the first so-called music academy in China. It was established in the reign of Tang Hsuan Tsung. It was so named because the place was surrounded by pear trees. Nowadays, “Pear Garden” means Chinese Opera performers. The manager/owner of the troupe always plays the role of a buffoon or a clown in deference to the Emperor who was fond of this role.

5 Obviously, the music must be sorrowful enough to evoke the thoughts of the poet. The twin stars refer to Altair and Vega. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cowherd_and_the_Weaver_Girl

7 The Weaver Girl secretly stole out of heavens to enter an illicit affair in the eyes of Heaven. The couple was cruelly punished for eternity. The poet wisely did not ask the Goddess directly but through Heaven. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e

8 It is not clear if the wish was granted. If it were, the lunar palace would be lonely with its mistress gone down to earth to be with the poet. On the other hand, the request was not granted or that the Goddess refused, preferring loneliness and to shine over the mountain forest rather than to be with a mere mortal. I like the latter reasoning. The Goddess represents the one behind the melody. The poet had momentarily wished for a meeting but in the end, his sadness overcame his curiosity.

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Rambling Thoughts

This came about when I needed something new to practise my calligraphy. One could say that there are so many numerous poems to draw upon. However, only a few had etched forever into my mind. I do not like to look and copy them onto the paper because it breaks my concentration. Writing the same piece over again and again is boring, just like taking the same walking route in the park day after day. This came from the inspiring line, 路遙崎嶇人生短from the poem. This is just rambling from an aroused mind.

01 路遙崎嶇何復返  How do one retreat on a long craggy road of ups and downs?
02 水流東去無西向 Rivers flow east, nary a western direction.
03 冉冉前進步步新 Slowly on a forward move, each step new,
04 喜樂悲哀誰豈怨 To whom can joys and heartaches be blamed on?
05 莫行人生道        Strode not on the path of men,
06 活不人               To live yet a human nary be.
07 盡頭依然難逃刼 No matter, at the end of the road, ‘tis difficult to escape from the ultimate calamity.
08 首顧知曉失敗否 At least, looking back knowing that a life fully lived.
09 途中棄廢非成就 Abandoning a journey halfway is no success,
10 了結凡心夢仙遊 Once the mortal heart is satisfied wouldst an immortal life be achieved.

1 崎嶇 can also mean life’s hardships

2 Rivers in China flows from an easterly direction due to the geographical features of the land.

5 Originally, I used 人生路 – the road of life. In using 道 – path, as in English has a double meaning. The next line tells which meaning is to be used.

6 Originally, I had used, 不活人. Combining with the original text of the previous line, this would mean, “Those who does not trod on the road of life are dead people.” 活不人 – more like a wolf in a sheep’s skin or trying to pass off as a human being.

Friday, April 29, 2022