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