This was inspired by a night walk on the Marina…
千杯醉月仍未醒.
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
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”.
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
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