Joys of Silent Cellphones

This poem was inspired by the imagery of the first few lines of 某一天, written by Li Xin

清晨, 雨，一塲细雨，然後，太陽出來了，
一杯茶,  門，虛掩着，
一陣手機聲，消失了，好像，又在嚮起…

1 風微雨細一塲後 After the gentle breeze and drizzle were gone,
2 晨早香茶半壺够 In the early morn, even half pot of fragrant tea is good for me.
3 逍遙籠雀喜歌唱 And when the caged bird is unfettered, its songs are carefree,
4 無聲手機樂往舊 Just like in days of yore when music is a silent cellphone.

3 In the old times, covered cages of songbirds are brought to the teahouse in early morning. The moment the cages are uncovered, the birds would start to since thinking that daybreak had just begun. Soon, some enterprising teahouse owners start to serve dainty plates of morsels. This is how dim sum houses came into being. Nowadays, the songbirds are gone but the food remained.

The “caged bird” refers to modern man being enslaved to technology.

4. 喜 and 樂 are used as verbs meaning “to want/love in joy”. 樂 also means “music” and was an important component used in rituals and ceremonies. Ancient Chinese believe music brings joy. On another note, if the grass radical is added to it, it becomes 藥 medicine or drugs - the joy of relieving pain or experiencing euphoria from being stoned! 葯 is a phonetic based variant in which the simplified form 药 is derived.

Saturday, November 26, 2022