Free Like A Bird

 

This poem was inspired by the first line that came to my mind during my walk in the alligator park.

1 風過湖心微波岸 Coursing through mid lake, the wind rippled gently on the banks,
2 水動銀閃群影降 Glimmering in silver as shadows fell upon undulating waters.
3 蘆花凌空接相迎 And to the sky, reed florets astir in mutual welcome,
4 白鷺交合點輕浪 While herons in white gently mingling, touching clement swells.

5 曾似飛燕掌上舞 Like how once Flying Swallow danced upon human palms,
6 莫亞楊家羽衣罕 Its plumage is as rare as the feathered skirt of the Yang family.
7 紅顏命薄鳥無憂 Life - never kind to too beautiful a woman and birds - nary a care in life,
8 一生自閑渡霄漢 Whose wholly existence is in carefreeness crossing the heavenly skies.

2 動 just means “to move” but I feel that this is not enough.

4 Now we know the wind is caused by the group of herons alighting on the waters and reed flowers are flying everywhere.

5 “Flying Swallow” is the name of a dancer who later became a Han Dynasty Empress. It was rumored that she was so light and lithe that she could dance on human palms.

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

https://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-is-fairy-retaining-skirt.html

6 "its plumage" is not in the original but to make things clearer for the reader.  莫亞 “not second”, i.e. “second to none”. This line alludes to Yang Guifei who wore the “rainbow skirt and feathered robes” in a dance choreographed by her and the music was composed by the Emperor Tang Hsuan Tsung. Sons are prized in Chinese society even today but an anomaly rose during Yang Guifei’s time that even Po Chu-I immortalized it in his Song of Eternal Sorrow, the lines, 遂令天下父母心, 不重生男重生女 (Resulting in the hearts of all parents, Unimportant it is to bear sons but daughters).

7 紅顏, literally “rosy face”. Here, famous beauties such as Chao Feiyan and Yang Guifei are used as examples.

8 It is better to become a bird that can soar so freely in the skies.

Friday, June 17, 2022