Jogging On Chinese New Year

The sunlight was weak and the wind is cold. It was the first day of the Year of the Rabbit and I had to do my daily jog…

1 新春弱日寒冬象 Sunlight is weak and early spring still in the form of winter,
2 雲冉青山白綿羊 Clouds slowing wending their way over green mountains in fleecy white.
3 一驟海風刺骨撲 A sudden of gust of bone piercing ocean wind leapt at me.
4 心中南洋直奔向 And my heart immediately fled towards the direction of the South Seas.

1 Today is the first day of Chinese New Year aka “Spring Festival”.

2 It can also be interpreted as flocks of sheep dotting on the green mountains under slow moving clouds.

4 南洋 is a term to denote mainly the South East Asian regions of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia where there are large concentrations of Chinese diaspora.

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Married Wrongly

During my jog and the penchant for something new to practice my brush writing…

1 朗月當空琵琶曲 The bright moon is high up in the sky and [on the earth, ] a pipa melody,
2 春江東去水流速 Floweth fast to the east are the waters of a spring river.
3 不比嫦娥幾夜顏 Unlike the Goddess of the moon appearing for a few nights,
4 商夫見金莫識足 The moment eyes laid on gold, my businessman husband knew no satisfaction.

2 All Chinese rivers flow towards an easterly direction because of geographic features of the land.

3 Unlike the pipa player, Chang Er, the lunar Goddess, does not have appear every night for the pleasure of others.

4 With this line, we can safely guess this poem is derived from the “Ballad of the Lute”, 琵琶行

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Life Is Never Black And White

While doodling with my brush writing as I was thinking what to write…

1 朝霧深鎖紫泉客 Enshrouding the Purple Pools is a morning guest of mists and fog,
2 世外桃花紅塵隔 And separated by the red dust are peach blossoms beyond this mortal world.
3 人生長短真假夢 Lives may be long or short and so dreams be real or false,
4 恩怨是非非黑白 Whether in grace or regret, be right or wrong, all are neither black nor white.

1 Purple pools are fairy pools for their waters exhibit a slight purplish aura. Someone must have literally or figuratively one otherwise such things would never have existed in the vocabulary.

2 Referring to the story of the peach blossom spring. Red Dust is a term for the mundane world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peach_Blossom_Spring.
https://www.dharmadrum.org/portal_e2_page.php?cnt_id=19&up_page=2

3 Dreams are like when Oscar winning actors telling the audience to follow one’s dream. For each Oscar won, many more unknown dreams are dashed and lives wasted away in pursuing false dreams. Buying a lottery ticket does not guarantee a winning chance but not buying one, guarantees zero winning!

4 The crux of the poem is that everything in life is never black and white.

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side

While doodling with my brush writing, the first line came to my mind. Later, completed the first stanza during my jog. When I started to record the poem on paper that I suddenly thought of the idea of reversing the situation that a mortal turning into the wind and dreaming away as an immortal. Then in the end like the Butterfly Dream of Chuang Tzu.

1 水流溪清桃源花 Water flows purely in the stream of the peach blossom springs,
2 風成欲至伴芳華 And be the wind amongst the fragrance and a companion be.
3 莫見紅塵恩怨舊 See not the grateful and grudge of the red dust turning old,
4 何不樂滿歌樹下 Why not an utmost blast to have with a song under the trees?

5 逍遙眠漸幻黃粱 In carefreeness, slowly slumbering into a fantasy of the Yellow Sorghum,
6 矇矓聲折醒南丫 And groggily awakened by breaking sounds of the Southern Branch.
7 驚覺四周非人界 Startled into awareness that surroundings are those not of men,
8 瑤池仙子夢凡也 But a fairy of the Jasper Pool dreaming of a mortal world!

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

3 red dust – the mundane world of mortals.

4 歌 can also be a verb in which case, the translation would have become “to sing”

5 http://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2011/02/dream-of-southern-bough-chinese-antz.html

6 See above. 柯 does not rhyme in Cantonese but 丫means the same.

8 The Jasper Pool belongs to the Queen Mother of the West, 西王母 believed to be in the vicinity of the Kunlun mountains (崑崙山).

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

之 - In Classical Chinese

Back To Introduction 
Next To 其

Lesson #1 – Usage of 之

Modern Usage

長江三角洲是中國經濟最發達的地區之一 (… 最發達地區的其中一個)

The Yangtze River Delta is one of China’s most economically developed regions.

他們之中 70%在60歲以下 (他們之中… 他們的中間… )

70% of them are under the age of 60.

湖中有五個小島, 人稱之為藍島 (人稱之… 把它叫做…)

There are five small islands in the lake which they are known as the “Blue Islands”.

Classical Usage

1 As a pronoun – he, she, it, they, etc.

2 As possessive indicator – the ending ‘s or ‘, “of”

3 As a verb – “to go”

4 As grammatical function to eliminate the independence of a sentence, (取消句子獨立性), i.e., turning clauses into noun phrases.

Subject + 之 + predicate, that is somebody + 之 + do something to be transformed/translated as somebody doing something as subject.

Examples

知之為知之, 不知為不知, 是知也.                                 (論語. 為政)

a. 為, be, become, serve as, 是, 算作
b. 是, this, that, 這個, 那個   

c.之, some knowledge or matter 某些知識或某些事

[如果] 知道它就是知道, 不知道就[承認] 不知道, 這就是知道啊

In knowing it, is to know. In not knowing, then [admit] in not knowing it. This is knowing!

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民不畏死, 奈何以死懼之?                                               (老子. 道德經)

a. 奈何, how? A rhetoric question, 怎麽, 反問
b. 以, to use, 用

平民不怕死怎麼 [能]嚇唬他們呢?

[When] people are not afraid of death, how can death be used to frighten them?

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正則用之, 邪則去之, 是則行之, 非則改之.                       (宋. 蘇軾. 論時政伏)

a. 正, Righteous, 端正, 正派

b. 邪, Evil doers, 邪惡

c. 去, remove, leave, 離開

d. 是, right, proper, 正確

e. 行, implement, carry out, put into practice, 實行

f. 非, wrong [doing] , mistake, 錯誤

正派的就任用它, 邪惡的就離開它, 正確的就實行它, 錯誤的就改正它

[Those who are] upright then use them, [Those who are] evil, then leave them, [That which are] proper, then implement them and [That which are] in error, then rectify them.

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子不教, 父之過, 教不嚴, 師之惰                             (三字經)

a. 過, fault, 過失, 過錯
b. 惰. laziness, 懶惰

兒女不教育是父親的過錯, 教育不嚴是老師的懶惰.

Children who are not educated are the fault of the father, when education is not strict, it is the laziness of the teacher.

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父母之年, 不可不知也. 一則以喜, 一則以懼.                 (論語. 里仁)

a. 年, age, 年齡
b. 一則, on one hand, 一面
c. 以, because of this, 因為這個

父母的年齡, 不可不知道, 一面高興 [他們的] 長壽, 另方面担心[他們的] 衰老.

Parent’s age, one cannot not know! On one hand, [there is ] joy because of their longevity, [but] on the other, fear for their senescence.

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君子之交淡若水, 小人之交甘若醴                                       (莊子. 山木)

a. 醴 sweet wine

君子的交往淡得像白水小人的交往甜得像甜酒.

A gentleman’s friendship is like the bland tasting water, and those of the ungentlemanly’s are honeyed like sweet wine.

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人之性如水, 置之圓則圓, 置之方則方                          (晉書. 傅玄傳)

a. 置 place, 放

Nature of man is like water, place it in a round [container], its [shape will be] round, place it in a square [container], its [shape will be] square.

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上之為政, 得下之情則治, 不得下之情則亂                          (墨子. 尚同上)

a. 上, superiors, those in charge i.e. rulers
b. 下, beneath, under

c. 為, for, in, because of

d. 政, politics, governance,

e. 治, to govern, to rule, to control,

f. 得, to obtain, to understand,

g. 情, situation, circumstance, 情况

施政者治理國家, [如果] 了解到下面的情況, [社會] 就會安定下來, [如果] 不了解下面的情況, [社會] 就亂起來了.

Fourth usage. 之 is used as a grammatical function to change the clause 上為政 (removal of 之) , “those in superior positions because of governance” into a subject as a noun phrase, “those in charge of governance”.

Higher ups in charge of governance, [if] understanding the circumstances of lower levels, then there will be order, in not understanding the circumstances of  lower levels, then there will be chaos.

Note: it will be better to translate “of” as “at” in English but this might confuse those wanting to learn Chinese.

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喜怒哀樂之動乎中, 必見乎外.                                (宋. 歐陽修. 辨左氏)

a. 動,  unleashed. Launch mobilize, 發動, 發源
b. 乎,  at, 在, 於

c. 中 , interior, in the heart 內心

d. 見,  One of the more obscure meaning is 現 and is pronounced as such 現 is a later addition for differentiation since it is commonly used. A recent example is 她 which was introduced in early 20th Century when western literature was translated into Chinese.

e. 外,  exterior

Fourth usage. 

喜, 怒, 哀, 樂發自於心, 一定表現在外表

Joy, anger, sorrow, [and] pleasure unleased inwardly, will appear outwardly.

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物之不齊, 物之情也                                           (孟子.藤文公上)

a. 齊,  of the same kind, uniform, 相同

b. 情,  matter, affair, situation (here it refers to feelings or mood), 情况, 本性 (本意為感情, 情緒)

Fourth usage. 

事物不一樣, [這是] 事物本來的情况

Things are not of the same, [this is] the nature of things.

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父母之愛子, 則為之計深遠                                 (戰國策. 趙策)

a. 計, plan, 安排, 計劃

Fourth usage

父母愛兒女, 就會為他們做深入長期的打算

[Due to] the love of parents, they will therefore plan far and deep for them.

Note: When 之 is removed, the subject noun phrase becomes a sentence “parents love their children” and the subject is “parents”

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人之德於我也, 我不可忘池, 吾有德於人也, 不可不忘也.             (戰國策. 魏策)

a. 德, benevolence, favors, kindness, 恩德
b. 於, towards, 對
c. 不可不忘, double negation – so the two nots cancel each other out and becomes just one 可忘

人對我有恩德, 我不可以忘記, 我對人有恩德, 我[應該]可以忘掉.

Fourth Usage. 之 is used to turn the sentence into a subject noun clause.

[When] treated with kindness from others, I must not forget. Kindness from me to other, I should forget.

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人心之不同, 如其面焉                                      (左傳.襄公三十一年)

a. 心, heart, here implies “within the heart” or thoughts.
b. 面, face, 臉
c. 焉, ah, alas, is that so? 啊, 呢

人想法不一樣, 就好像他們臉容都有各不同

Fourth Usage. By removing 之, 人心不同 is an independent statement. By adding 之, it becomes the subject with a predicate following.

Within the hearts of men are not the same, alas just like their faces.

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寒之之日長而暴之之日短
植之之人寡而拔之之人多                                      (宋.王安石.乞出表二)

a. 暴, expose to the sun, to warm up in the sun, 日曬
b. 植, to plant, 種植

c. 寡, alone, few 少

d. 拔, pull out, in this context, to mar or destroy

寒冷季節的時間很長但陽光燦爛的時間却很短
種樹的人很少但拔樹的人很多

The first 之 is fourth usage to turn the sentence into a subject clause.

Days of cold are long and days of warmth are short,
Planting of trees has few people and pulling of trees are many. (in other words, more consumers than producers)

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蜀之鄙有二僧, 其一貧, 其一富, 

貧者語於富者曰: 吾欲之南海, 何如?                        (清.彭端叔.白鶴堂集.為學)

a. 蜀, Szechuan, 四川
b. 鄙, remote area, 邊遠的地方
c. 僧, Buddhist monk, 和尚

四川邊遠的地方有兩個的和尚, 其中一個貧窮, 一個富有. 窮和尚對富有地說, 我想去南海, 怎樣?

Of Szechuan, there are two Buddhist monks. One is rich and the other poor. The poor one said to the rich one: “I would like to go to the Southern Seas. How about it?”

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王坐於堂上, 有牽牛而過堂下者. 王見之曰: 牛何之?
對曰: 將以衅鐘. 王曰: 舍之.                                                  (孟子. 梁惠王上)

a. 何, where, 那兒
b. 衅鐘, bell consecration with blood of a sacrificial animal
c. 舍, old variant of 捨, to release, abandon, give up, let go, give alms, 捨棄, 放生, 放開

梁惠王坐在殿堂上, 有個人牽着牛從堂下經過. 梁惠王看到了他, 就問: 帶着牛去那裡? 那個人回答: 將來用衅鐘. 梁惠王說: 放了它吧.

The king (referring to King Liang Hui) sat in the administrative palace hall. There was a cow being shepherded by a person as they passed by the building. The king saw him and asked: Where is the cow led (going) to? [The man] replied: To be used as sacrifice to consecrate a bell. The king said, “Release it.”

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Back To Introduction
Next To 其

Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Learning Classical Chinese

Next

Introduction

Recently, I stumbled on a Youtube video series for learning Classical Chinese conducted in Mandarin in a Zoom classroom setting. I find it highly informative and valuable as a learning tool. At the same time, I like how the knowledge was being transmitted. I believed it is an advance class for non-Chinese background students or at least non-native speakers of the language.

However, there are certain things which I find extremely annoying. Much of the time was wasted for the teacher trying her best to get student participation. I can sympathize with her. It was like pulling teeth. At first she opted for a voluntary basis but then when this did not work, she started to ask a random student for an answer. Later in the series, I believed she gave up on them and there was no more class participation. The other thing being the poor quality of video and audio supplements introduced in the class.

To be able to explain a subject, it means that I had understood it well. Hence, this is my main goal for this project. Because of time constraints, I will forgo any material that is not presented textually in the video class. Neither will I delve into supplemental exercises or material that are not presented in the class as well.

In the spirit of studying a traditional, topic, I shall be using traditional characters. I believe that that the only justification in using simplified characters is to facilitate a faster means of transmission.

Most of the examples are snippets of text taken from the Chinese Classics and therefore are translated textually without context and because of the conciseness and terseness of language, there are cases when there may be more than one interpretation. Since this project is on grammar, grammatical functions, etc. of the language, I will not delve into which interpretation is correct or more appropriate.

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Videos               Text

Introduction
Lesson #1 “之” 01

Next

The Case of Huangzhou's Chrysanthemums - 黄州菊案

This inspiration came from “The Case of Huangzhou’sChrysanthemums”, 黄州菊案 about Wang An Shih and Su Shi, better known as Su Dong Po…

Upon returning from a three year exile, Su Shi decided before even seeking an audience with the emperor, it would be more prudent to pay a visit to Wang An Shih, his superior who was the cause of his banishment. Su was led to the library to enjoy a cup of tea first as the prime minister was napping.

All bookcases were locked and on the writing table was a magnificent ink slab that was barely dried. Out of curiosity, he touched it. He noticed that there was a piece of paper under the slab. He took it out to read it. It was an incomplete poem of two lines.

西風昨夜過园林, West wind from last night passing through the garden forest,
吹落黄花滿地金. Blown down are yellow flowers upon the ground in gold.

Su Shi was like a superstar of his time. He passed the highest imperial examination honors at the age of 19 and is considered the greatest literary figure in the entire Chinese culture as he excelled not only in poetry but also a master calligrapher, essayist, gastronome, pharmacologist, politician and travel writer. As such, he has a sort of haughtiness in him and tends to be too blunt and cocksure of himself. Upon reading the lines, he began to smirk to himself.

He opined that spring wind is 和風 (harmonious wind), summer wind is 薰風 (fragrant wind), autumn wind is 金風 (golden wind) and winter wind is 朔風 (north wind). Since the first line mentions west wind, its direction is represented by the element 金, therefore it must denote autumn wind. On the second line, yellow flowers has be chrysanthemums since it is the autumn flower. These lines described the wind scattering the chrysanthemums all over the ground. This is pure nonsense, he thought, because unlike other flowers, chrysanthemums remain on the stems even when they are withering. He began to besmirch that Wang is getting senile and unable to complete the poem when in his younger days, he wrote so prolifically, including a ten-thousand character letter to the throne but now only half completed poem.

Su could not contain himself and added two more lines to complete the poem.

秋花不比春花落, Autumn flowers are not summer flowers that will fall,
說與詩人仔細吟. I say this to the poet to be more aware of what he chants.

On completion, Su regretted his rash action and thought that he would take the poem with him but that will cause trouble for the housekeeper.  Leaving it behind would cause embarrassment for both when Wang received him. In the end, he left the poem in its original place and told the housekeeper that he could no longer wait as he has to prepare himself for tomorrow’s audience with the emperor.

On discovering what was written on the poem,Wang did not say anything after recognizing Su’s handwriting and confirmed that he had indeed been at the scene of the crime. “Never his manners changed. Still as brash and blunt as ever”, Wang thought to himself. Instead of acknowledging his lack of knowledge, he comes jeering at me. Tomorrow I shall petitioned to the throne to strip him of his officialdom and a commoner he shall be!”

Then on a second thought, “This lout of shallow learning doesn’t even know about the line in Qu Yuan’s On Encountering Sorrow (離騷)!", 

夕餐秋菊之落英 At dusk eating falling chrysanthemums to stave off hunger.

How would he know anything about chrysanthemums from Huangzhou (黄州)”.

On finding out there’s a vacancy in the post of a deputy for local militia against peasant uprising, Wang petitioned to the emperor the next day for Su’s yet another exile. Su could not do anything.  After all, it was because of his recklessness. About a year later, Su was stunned at the sight of scattered blossoms all over the ground  seeing chrysanthemums heaped on the ground at a friend’s chrysanthemum viewing party for the Double Ninth Festival. He realized that Wang was not exacting revenge but a lesson taught in humility.

When Wang recalled Su back to the capital, he visited Wang again to apologize for his lack of knowledge. Years later, when Su was on his way to a new post, he visited Wang who by now was “retired” from court. To be fair, Su never opposed Wang’s New Policies but its implementation. Wang was grateful to Su for still remembering when all his friends had forsaken him now that he’s no longer in power, lamenting that in the next life, they could be friends.

Of course, being a mere dot of a firefly that I am beside these two celestial luminaries, this shouldn’t mean that I cannot try hand. Therefore, this is my paltry take based on Wang’s first two lines with changes made to suit the theme.

1 西風昨夜過上林 The west wind of last night passed by the imperial gardens,
2 摧盡黄花滿地金 Ravaging yellow flowers till the ground is heaped in gold.
3 恨棄寒窗榮華求 Regretting that poverty abandoned for splendor,
4 妝台秋思掃古琴 Playing Thoughts By The Dresser on an ancient zither.

1 園 is replaced by 上, superior.

2 吹落 is replaced by 摧盡, completely ravaged

3 寒窗, cold window depicting abject poverty. So poor that the scholar could not afford candles to study at night but by the moonlight.

4 Thoughts By The Dresser is an old melody describing the mood of Wang Chao Chun by her dresser.

古琴 version
古箏 version

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Late Realization

 

While jogging, this line came into my mind, 塵虛萬事空. I guessed my philosophy isn’t good enough to make a poem out of it as the first line. So, I cleared my mind and think of something else. Later, another line came into my mind and became the first line. Finally, when I was done jogging, I was able to incorporate the original line into the poem.

1 烟雲白霧朝晨蓋 All are covered by morning mists and fog,
2 隱約微覺近蓬萊 But a gut feeling tells me that the Blessed Isles are near.
3 遲悟塵虛萬事空 Too late that I had learnt that all things are empty and ephemeral,
4 珍惜餘生莫作獃 ‘tis better to value the remaining years and no more a fool shall be.

Friday, January 13, 2023

Just A Guest

This was inspired by the above a photo from a member of the FB Chinese Poetry group’s Xiao Bai…

雲海潮波團團黑 An ocean of clouds swirling in groups of black,
朗月淩空高高隔 Riding high into the heavens is the bright moon of far away.
普照闌靜洞庭水 Shining all over the quiet waters of Lake Tung Ting,
逍遙漫渡不久客 It is but a transitory guest ambling away with nary a care.

Sunday, January 15, 2023

Some Old Updates

One of my earliest poems when I had more courage to delve into the world of Chinese poetry. This one stems from some time in November of 1994.  Refinements were made in 2009. 2015 and 2017.  Then on 12 January, 2023, a complete rewrite was undertaken.

飛騰白雪影 The shadow of swirling white snow,
縹緲仍未停 Unceasingly misty and indiscernible.
越冷更梅紅 Colder and plum blossoms seems redder,
氣傲不近情 An aura of haughtiness that cannot be neared.

The plum tree is one of the Three Friends of Winter. The other two being the bamboo and the pine. They are admired for their tenacity against the cold.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Friends_of_Winter

This was originally written in 29 April 2009 inspired by the video, 醉花緣 and the song 葬心.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3L6C85UY3Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJqzJwObPCA

1 往日花艷少年壯 In days of yore, when flowers were amorous and youths virile,
2 芬芳紅梅畫中降 And fragrance of red plum blossoms came wafting down from the painting.
3 月色迷人醉老儍 Enchanting is the moonlight inebriating one silly aged fool,
4 舊夢重演當初漢 And old dreams began to act out of a man once before.

1 Flowers are a euphemism for pretty girls.

3 Literally, the color of the moon. Ordinary, it means the night scene of a full moon.

This one was originally written in 20 December, 2009 and then updated on 21 July 2015 and 23 August 2015. An almost complete rewrite occurred on Friday, January 13, 2023.

蜂蝶細語凡塵看 Look upon the earth, hear whispers among the bees and butterflies,
浮世氣傲水花浪 Everchanging world of mortals and pride will always be like crashing waves.
人生夢長人生短 Life is short but its dreams are long,
往事籌謀往事忘 How we planned; how we plotted, are now but memories long forgotten.

Originally written in 09 January, 2010 and went through an update in 05 August 2015 and finally on 14 January 2023.

1 風和湖畔綠柳蔭 Winds warming green willow shades by the banks of lakes,

2 白雲輕掃花間暗 And white clouds sweeping gently over the darkening flower beds.

3 蝶戀紅塵無多時 There’s not much time for butterflies to be attached to this mortal world,

4 瑤池仙子更難堪 ‘tis more difficult for Jasper Pool fairies to endure.

1 和 is used as a verb and in this context “to warm” since the scene is not set in the cold.

2 花間, “amid the flowers”, “the space among flowers” etc.

3 紅塵, “red dust”, i.e. Buddhist term for the mortal world.

4 瑤池, the fairy pools in the abode of the Queen Mother of the West, 西王母, reputed to be in the Kunlun mountains. Technically, “fairy” is not an accurate translation; for Chinese fairies do not have wings nor are they tiny beings. This is English lore. 仙人 is an immortal and 仙子 is an incredibly beautiful female immortal. They are indistinguishable from human beings. 仙子 is also used for female spirits so as to flatter them and to avoid trouble. For example, 狐仙, fox fairy, when they take on the guise of a woman.

Intermarriage between fairies and mortals are not allowed by the Laws of Heaven. If flouted, the fairy or both parties would be punished as in the story of the Heavenly Spinning Maid and Cowherd. In the story of the Seventh Fairy Maid, 七仙女, the husband is threatened to be torn into a thousand threads if she does not go back to the celestial realm. On the other hand, when the celestial beings violated the rule of having impure or human emotions, they were banished from Heaven as punishment and be reborn as mortals so that they suffer and learn the futility of human emotions are transitory. Tragic lovers such as those from the Butterfly Dream Lovers are said to be the result of such punishments.

Last Night's Rain

1 風嚮寒鈴三更雪 Cold chimes sounded by the wind and midnight snow,
2 擊破醉夢醒人絕 Waking inebriated dreamers to hopelessness.
3 莫恐窗外遍白愁 Fret not to white stretches of sorrows beyond the window,
4 點燭作為春江月 But let a lighted candle becomes the moon shining over a springtime river.



1 One Chinese hour is equivalent to two modern hours. The third hour is from Midnight to 2am.



Monday, January 09, 2023

Ode To Plum Blossoms - 詠梅

 

On a nice and sunny jogging day…

1 雨後雲白迎春歸 After the rains, clouds are white, welcoming the return of spring,
2 窗前東君送無愧 Outside the windows, the Lord of the East had bestowed all that are of worth,
3 誰知梅紅仍未盡 Who knew that even before the red of plum blossoms had faded,
4 不料楊家花開貴 That the Yang family’s blooms had unexpectedly become highly prized.

2 Lord of the East – the sun deity.

4 This line establishes the hidden meaning of the poem. The flower represents the daughter of the Yang family, none other than Yang Guifei, the imperial Concubine Yang. With this, the plum blossom in the 3rd line represents the Plum Blossom imperial concubine of Emperor Tang Hsuan Tsung, the former rival to Yang Guifei.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiang_Caipin#:~:text=As%20her%20actual%20name%20was,address%20her%20as%20Consort%20Mei.

Sunday, January 8, 2023

Finally Some Sun & A Happy Coming Rabbit Year

Th sun finally came out of the clouds later in the morning and hence this inspiration. The poem was completed when I finished my jog.

1 重見雲開光明灑 Once more, the clouds broke and sunlight sprinkling away,
2 天青風和如初夏 The sky is blue and winds are warm like a summer’s beginning.
3 能望嘉州災旱解 Wishing that the Californian drought is no more,
4 不久兔臨萬戶家 And soon comes the Year of the Rabbit to all families.

1 Can also mean “light is at the end of the tunnel”

4 The Year of the Rabbit commences on 22 January 2023.

Thursday, January 5, 2023

On a roll with the next day's glorious weather...

1 天青重見白雲歡, The sky is blue, ‘tis wonderful to see white clouds again,
2 灑盡人間關懷滿 And with utmost care, sprinkling the mortal world in warmth.
3 冬辭春報雨後新 Winter’s withdrawing, spring’s reporting, and all’s afresh after the rains,
4 虎別兔臨朝明換 So sayeth goodbye to Tiger and let Rabbit cometh with a bright new morn.

2 “warmth” is not in the original but implied by the first line.

Friday, January 6, 2023

More Rains

Southern California is going through another day of cold and rains… Came up with this while jogging in this wet condition of a still light drizzle. The rhyming scheme is taken from a previous poem…

困在屋中雨落横 Trapped in the house as rains fell askew,
愁於窗外風吹冷 Saddened by cold winds beyond the window blew.
青堂瓦舍堅幸暖 ‘tis lucky to have warmth in a sturdy house of bricks and tiles,
可憐商塲無人行 Pity the mall with no pedestrian traffic!

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

2023 Updates To 2008 Poems

This was originally composed in 2008 even before I had this blog started and went through three updates in 2016 and 2017.

1 夜長雪橫待月華 Deep is the night, heavy is the snow, I waited for the light of the moon,
2 難守雲開抱琵琶 ‘tis difficult to wait for the clouds to disperse - thus this pipa I now carry.
3 江上孤舟銀河無 Lonely boat upon the waters but not on the Silver River,
4 莫皺眉頭妬彩霞 No longer my brows shall frown in knots to envy the colored clouds.

1 The moon is obscured by the snowstorm, representing an uncontrollable event.

2 Carrying the pipa is to marry another man, an allusion to Wang Chiao Chun being forcefully married off to a barbarian chieftain which her love, the emperor could not do anything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Zhaojun

3 Silver River – the Milky Way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qixi_Festival

4 The obscuring colored clouds denote some other woman who got the dips on her love (metaphorically the moon is the light of her life).

In 2008, I had written only two poems and this one is entitled 漁翁夢 was written on 6th of June and thus the previous poem must have been composed sometime earlier .  It went through several updates in 2015 and once in 2017.  Hopefully the 2023 version is the last...

1 流星殘娟曉日初 A shooting star, a waning moon… The morning sun still anew,
2 遠山寒鐘送飛鵝 Distant mountains, cold morning bells bade adieu to geese in flight.
3 朝霧隱若蓬島現 Glimpses are the Fairy Isles wafting in and out of the morning fog,
4 畔見漁夢老醉儍 Solidly seen on the riverbank is an old drunked fool dreaming of bygone fishing days…

1 嬋娟 is a pretty girl used as a metaphor for the moon. Here it means a fading beauty.

2 It the East, traveling great distances remote temples is proof of their sincerity to have their wishes granted while in the West, churches are located conveniently close by in order to “save” souls more conveniently. In my personal opinion, they seem more interested in collecting souls.

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Penglai

Monday, January 2, 2023

Taking A Respite

While jogging…

1 曦陽暮雪街上冷 Morning sunlight, evening snow, streets are cold!
2 急步入店避風横 Into the roadside inn, I evaded the billowing winds.
3 熱酒今宵一壺醉 One jug of hot wine to intoxicate the night,
4 何顧明晨誤路行 Why worry of a compromised journey of next morning?

1 Metaphorically, 曦陽暮雪 means that life is short. Similar to 朝如青絲暮成雲 (locks of black hair of the morning, snowy had they become at dusk) Li Po’s 將進酒.

Monday, January 2, 2023

First Poem Of 2023

The first poem of the year while doodling on my brush writing… ‘tis time to forget all that had been written and look forward to new creations yet to come.

1 浮雲萬里高千丈 Far and high clouds afloat,
2 悠悠無顧蓬山向 Leisurely towards the remote Blessed Isles, nary a look back.
3 醉戀凡塵恩怨淚 Still if attached to loves and grudges of the mortal world,
4 總是寂寞對月亮 In the end, like loneliness facing the brightness of the moon.

2 顧 also means “to care”.

3 Literally “intoxicating love attached to the tears of joy and regrets”

4 Unable to move forward, one’s soul still trapped in time, pining for all that are now dead and gone.

Sunday, January 1, 2023