Strange Southern California Weather

Weather nowadays had been strange for California during this time around. It had been raining more often. One day, it was hot and sunny and the next day drenched in storms. Then in one day, the rain came a few times and suddenly the rest of the day was blasted in hot sun.

Poem #1

This neighbor’s purple tree by the roadside was the inspiration for the first poem. 

From away, the flowers were not that eye catching except for the color.  On a closer inspection, the beauty is obscured by the distance. 

1 後庭借蔭紫花樹 Borrowed shade under a backyard tree of purple blossoms,
2 蓬生逍遙莫遠處 Under its canopy, unfettered freedom born not from a place of faraway.
3 風過無心歌舞逢 An unintentional rendezvous with song and dance, the wind passes by,
4 教出一曲竹葉雨 Teaching the bamboo leaves to rustle out a melody of rain.

1 In my backyard, I have a jacaranda and a purple blossom Empress Tree. So, no poetic licence here…

2 Happiness can be found anywhere when there is satisfaction and one need no rainbow to cross into Oz.

4 Perhaps it was the sight of falling blossoms that made the rustling leaves sound like falling rain.

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Poem #2

The rains came in the middle of the night again and the next morning, it was still drizzling.  While waiting for it to stop, the idea of having a contrasting scene with some connection to the previous poem,

1 後庭今日何蔭借 No longer would the backyard shade of today be lent,
2 橫風無情雨滴斜 Fury of heartless winds and raindrops fall askew.
3 花落紫血霑地流 Blossoms fall with purple blood, tainting the flows on the ground,
4 草亂群堆似墓野 And grasses bunching in chaotic heaps, looking more like feral mounds.

1 借 can mean “to lend” and “to borrow”. It all depends on the context.

2 橫 means horizontal or unfettered restraint. A crab is considered a tyrant as it is the only creature to move in a linear horizontal direction. A sidewinder moves at an angle.

3 Purple blooms flowing slowly on the water like purple blood.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Poem #3

Finally, the drizzle had stopped and I went for my daily jog. The skies were still gloomy and depressing when suddenly, during my second round, the dark clouds were replaced with white fluffy clouds and blue skies. Then sun came blasting away as if the rain of a few moments ago had never existed.

1 雨後風清草碧綠 After the rains, a breath of fresh breeze and grasses in green,
2 掃盡人徑花初露 Sweeping unceasingly at life’s path of budding blooms.
3 危葉尖滴能幾何 How long can droplets dangle so dangerously from the tips of leaves?
4 喜鵲重歸見春報 And joyous magpies returning to announce spring’s reporting.

4 報 is used as a verb and not as a noun - "... spring reporting [for duty, etc.] Magpies are the first sign of spring which supposedly had started in Southern California but because of the more than usual rains at this time, it didn’t look quite like the season.

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Drinking Alone

Another mental exercise during my jog…

1 獨杯自醉竹影深 Lone cup into inebriation, bamboo shadows had grown deep,
2 銀河浮星仍未沉 And yet floating stars of the Milky Way had not sank.
3 雞啼五更將快到 Dawn cometh fast upon the crowing of the rooster,
4 琵琶聲暗渡無音 Faint are sounds of the pipa passing time from no news of thee.

2 Movements in the first two lines denote the quick and slow passage of time.

3 Literally, “the rooster crowing to announce the fifth hour”. This period lasts from 4am to 6am.

4 聲 means “sounds made by heaven or come from heaven” such as winds. 音 comes from the worldly plane or manmade. These terms can be used figuratively. I have heard 天音 being used but never 風音 for 風聲. Perhaps it is due to the combined sounds made. 聲音 just means any kind of sound.

音 in this context is short for 音信, news. Two possible scenarios - The pipa is being played quietly to pass the time or that the hanging pipa on the wall is enduring silence with faint memories of the bygone past.

Monday, March 27, 2023

Captivation Of the Mortal World

Another mental exercise for my daily jog especially on a nice sunny day…

1 滿山碧草花開貴 The hills are full of scented grasses and flowers bloom in glory,
2 遍地黄金日向葵 All over the fields are golden sunflowers.
3 蓬萊海霧雲烟夢 Far away is the fog of the Immortal Isles,
4 凡塵此刻更戀迷 At this time, the mortal world is more captivating.

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Once Upon A Heyday

Was scribbling something with a brush before I went for my jog. During the jog, was able to come up with what seemed more fitting to be the second line… 桃花爭艷紅

1 東君未到雪橫空 The Lord of East had not arrived and snow flying abound in the skies,
2 獨自梅花爭艷紅 Plum blossoms alone vie for redness.
3 三春楊絮沾滿城 And into the third month of spring, poplar catkins doused the entire city,
4 一首珠淚伴寒宮 But tears from One Bushel of Pearls poem to keep company with the lonely moon.

1 Lord of the East – the Chinese God of the sun.

2 Plum blossoms bloom most spectacular in the harshest of winter. Here “red” can also be interpreted as “popular”

3 Yang means poplar, a reference to Yang Guifei.

4 寒宮 is the name of the palace on the moon where the lunar goddess lives alone with the jade rabbit, the three legged toad and the osmanthus tree. 冷宮 also means cold palace but denotes any place in the palace far away from the sight of the emperor where the disgraced palace lady is imprisoned for the rest of her life. Both places are lonely and cold but for different reason and intention. See note 4 of 天無白雲青於藍 for the allusion to “One Bushel of Pearls”.

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Silver Lining

Again, it had been raining the entire night and the next morning, it was still in a very light drizzle. Then suddenly, the sky cleared up and sunshine galore. After 15 minutes, it suddenly rained as the sunshine had come. While taking the opportunity, went for my jog and this poem came into the mind. However, the strange pattern repeated a few more times and then remained cloudy and rainy at times until evening descended.

1 幾陣陽光雨淋柳 A few moments of sunshine and rains drenched the willow trees,
2 斜坡溪成水急流 Water came gushing down as slopes had turned into rivulets.
3 冲破半山石磯阻 Ridding all mid hill stony obstacles from its path,
4 重見天日但願久 To see the clear skies and sun long enough is my wish.

4 Figuratively, 天日 means good prospects.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Scapegoat

Wanted to reach my 50th poem before the month ends… So, while jogging starting with various lines with the rhyming character as 點. The lines were either not colorful or meaningful enough. Trying to continue would make the poem too plain. Finally, a line came into my mental exercise and from there, it was plain sailing…

1 琵琶聲盡箔牽連 The pipa had stopped and the reed screen got blamed,
2 銀橋彩暗野烟纒 As the silver bridge darkened from feral mists.
3 五更夢短長夜勸 Short dreams at the hour of the fifth consoled by the long night,
4 窗外嘀嗒愁雨點 And sorrowful raindrops goes drip a drip outside the window.

2 The bridged looks silvery due to the moonlight but is now obscured by the mists. 野 can use to denigrate wild flowers of the green bowers.

5 The fifth hour is equivalent to the period from 3am to 5am.

Monday, March 20, 2023

A Spring Night Affair

 

Before my jog, I was doodling with the brush and a line came into my mind. Later I decided to make this into the last line of the stanza. Completed this before my jog.

During my jog, refined the poem to the point that I thought the language was more elegant way in expressing.

1 春宵銀光月下晚 Late is the spring night under the silvery glow of the moon,
2 舊曲隱約指空彈 An old melody wafting in and out as I plucked my fingers in the air.
3 添酒加杯敬請降 New wine added to another cup - an earnest respect to invite her descent,
4 微笑普照醉人間 Smiling faintly to shine over an inebriated mortal world.

1 晚 means late rather than night since 宵 is already used.

2 The poet must be getting drunk as he tried to remember the old tune by trying to play an imaginary zither in the air. Wind instruments are blown - 吹, percussions are beaten/attacked, e.g. 擊 and of course, string instruments are plucked or strummed.

4 Figuratively, the moon had consented to the poet’s invitation to come down as beams to have a drinking bout with him. This line could also mean that it is inebriating to see the moon “smile”.

Sunday, March 19, 2023

Karma

This one was started before my jog when the last line first came into my mind and completed after my jog…

1 撲蝶逍遙暗悲傷 Catching butterflies with carefreeness but hidden sorrows lie within,
2 飛燕守陵寂寞常 Flying Swallow keeps watch in loneliness over the imperial tombs.
3 長門餘日何區別 What’s the difference to a remaining lifetime in the Eternal Gates,
4 春曉桃花陳年相 Peach blossoms and spring morns are nothing more but a face of yesteryears.

1 Catching butterflies with a silk fan is a pastime with ladies in a rich household.

2 Chao Fei Yan’s literal name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhao_Feiyan

3 The “cold palace” where Chen Ah Chiao, the first wife of emperor Han Wu Ti was banished to. It was the home of her mother, the Princess Royal and aunt to the emperor, that was given to the emperor as a bribe to overlook her indiscretions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Jiao

4 “dream” can be used as a verb and the line can be translated as “dreaming of a spring morn’s peach blossoms” i.e. to dream of Chao Fei Yan’s youthful past.

Saturday, March 18, 2023

Elusive Perfection

 

The first line was inspired while doodling with the brush before my daily jog. By the time, the jog had ended, I had something concrete and after a few refinements…

1 山有高低水深淺 Mountains are high, mountains are low, waters be deep or shallow,
2 聖無長短人惡善 Nary a fault a sage has but good or in every man.
3 天庭凡間莫黑白 There is no black and white in the heavens nor on earth,
4 尋取臻選難入眠 In choosing the way to perfection, then sleep be no more.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Brief Glimpse To A Passerby

 

The impetus came from a number of unfurled events that coalesced into one creation of a poem in the end. David Badagnani from FB’s Chinese Poetry group replied to my comment on his poem via a link because of the term 秦樓楚舘 that I gave as an idiom to show him.  This was to show that I didn’t simply search on the internet to verify the allusion of 秦樓,  the name of the place where 弄玉 and 蕭史 lived. 

Then I remembered a Cantonese opera about their story. A quick check on YouTube showed  that the opera movie is called 誇鳳乘龍, staring 任劍輝, 白雪仙, 梁醒波, 任冰兒 and 李香琴. Since I had forgotten about the plot and because of the poetry in the songs, I watched the entire movie again with some fast forwarding. 

The hero recited the poem which I took as inspiration.

一曲簫聲繞畫樑 A flute melody coils around the painted pillars,
清風掃盡禁街霜 And a wind of purity swept away the snow on palace walkways.
等閑莫把霓裳弄 Tease not the rainbow skirt in carelessness,
百鳥聞聲要朝凰 For upon the song heard, birds of all kinds, to the phoenix, an audience sought.

It was then that an inspiration formed in my head. At first, I thought 繞 was 掛 but found out my error very much later after the first line of the poem had been formed in my head. Perhaps, it was because my inner nature refused to be defeated and went back to the video and tried to listen to the Cantonese while staring hard at the blurred character in the song’s Chinese subtitles. Finally, I solved the problem but by now, it was too late to change anything…

There are instances in life while walking on a street, a passer-by so gorgeous looking that in your heart, an insatiable yearning arose, wanting to have a second look even knowing that it is not fated to know each other.  And because of this, courage is non-existent to catch up with destiny.  One has to know from the look of oneself in the mirror. 

Lament fills the soul as joy evaporated with each step of that shadow going away and never to return but in dreams…

1 玉笛一曲掛霧穿 A jade flute melody pierced through the hanging fog,
2 金風掃盡紫烟泉 And golden winds swept away the purple mists of fairy pools.
3 赤壁瓊閣影無踪 Naked cliffs and jasper terraces revealed but nary a trace of shadows,
4 但求次見蓬山鸞 If only the phoenix of the Blessed Isles be once more seen.

1 Most probably a jade studded flute since the sound quality is not as warm as those made from wood.

2 Fairy pools have mists tinged in purple surrounding them. “Golden winds” a reference to autumn as it is also associated with the element metal. Gold is a more poetic word than metal.

3 Of course all the immortals were startled and left when the protective fog is blown away.

4 Mt Horai, the main mountain in the Blessed Isles of the Eastern Ocean.

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Yearnings Of The Past

 

I had been playing some video games on the phone throughout the night till 6am of the next morning before going to bed. In that 4 hour period of sleep, I did not sleep well as my mind was plagued by dreams which I forget upon waking up. 

However, the first two lines came easily during that state of semi-consciousness in which a dream makes it so logical to start a poem. After my jog, I was able to complete it with refinements.

1 烟雨矇矓船舟岸 The misty drizzle obscuring boats by the banks,
2 銀光隱約照水寒 And silvery light wafting in and out makes the waters look so cold.
3 萬里歲月千杯夢 Time spent on long journeys are with dreams made from a thousand cups,
4 念家舊陳童年看 With thoughts of the family, old furnishings seen with eyes of childhood.

3 Literally, “ten thousand”. All these numbers are just figures of speech. To retain some of the local flavor of the language, I went with direct translation.

4 家 means family, house or home. “ancestral home” is not in original text but is implied culturally.

In ancient times, members of the immediate family were expected to live in a common abode even if they have their own family. Modernity due to job opportunities had changed this.

Monday, March 13, 2023

Was able to compose this one on the second round of my jog.  It was a good day for my mental exercises.

1 雙親撫養無限階 Parents place no limit place on rearing their children,
2 莫惜雨打風吹曬 Sacrificing under the beatings of the rain, wind and sweltering heat.
3 羽毛豐滿處遠飛 And yet when their plumage is full, everywhere that is far they’ll fly,
4一日旋還孽子債 One day that karma returns in the form of your own children.

Monday, March 13, 2023

Such Is The Life of Mortals

It had been raining all day and night yesterday. This morning, the rain had abated but is still sort of misty wet. As I jog, I could hear the dogs barking in the animal shelter for their lunch feeding. The second stanza was inspired when there was a brief respite of bright sunshine broken through the dark clouds and by the time I was done with my jog, I was drenching in sweat.

This poem compares elements of nature to that of despots in making life miserable for the populace.

1 獨步微覺烟雨沾 Feeling the slight misty rain as I walked alone,
2 天冷地濕斜路險 The sky is cold, the ground is wet and inclined roads are treacherous.
3 途徑偏僻犬聲遠 My route is remote but barking dogs I hear from a distance,
4 髮尖危滴有幾點 And upon the tips of my hair are few droplets of water.

5 長夢繼續短人生 Dreams continue to be long but life is short,
6 風吹寒刺權欺善 Cold winds piercing like the powerful oppressing the meek.
7 日破中午烏雲散 And by noon, the sun had broken through the clouds of dark,
8 衣衫未亁汗漸流 My clothes not yet dried but sweat is now slowly seeping into them.

4 Textually, 有幾點 can be a rhetorical question but in this context, just a matter-of-fact statement.

Saturday, 11 March 2023

If Destiny Allows

The original idea was to write a story about searching for the source where peach blossoms were floating downstream.  In the end, the search had to be stopped because the stream came gushing through a hole in the mountain cliffs carrying the flowers with it.  The mountains were impassable.

I didn't have the inspiration to write two or more stanzas to tell a good story.  Have to wait for sometime in the future...  In the meantime, just a placeholder, lest the idea may be forgotten.

1 過風無情銀波皺 The relentless wind passes - curling silvery ripples into frowns,
2 溪水桃花盡日愁 Peach blossoms floating an entire day upon the stream with sorrow.
3 霧鎖瀛洲紅塵隔 Enshrouding fog separates the fairy isle from the mortal world,
4 雲鞘劍嶺赤壁流 Just as clouds scabbarding sword-like ranges of naked cliffs whence it flows.

3 One of the mountains in the three Blessed Isles, the other two being 蓬萊 and方丈.

Monday, March 6, 2023

 

Four Seasons - Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn

This series of four poem began when this first poem was completed. I was on the roll and began with a second one. However, I could not think of any appropriate title for them.  Later an idea of grouping them with another of two as a series on the four seasons.

Winter

1 隆冬飛雪掃天冷 Deep is winter when snowstorms sweeps coldness into the skies,
2 縹緲臘梅枝上横 Faintly discernible are wintersweet blooming in unfettered restraint.
3 與誰爭艷獨自紅 Who can  vie with my beauty? Alone, I am most wanted,
4 東君醒後花落殘 And yet my spent blooms are falling upon the Lord of the East’s awakening.

3 Wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox is yellow in color and does not belong to the plum family. Hence 紅 means “popular” in this context.

4 東君, the Chinese Sun God to mean springtime, when most things will grow and bloom but emblems of winter will be gone.

Friday, March 3, 2023

Spring

1 蘭心綽約望春早 Dainty is a maid wishing for an early springtime,
2 出得深閨後庭到 And from her abysmal boudoir and into the garden she could go.
3 百花久已爭艷紅 Already a hundred blooms are vying in their alluring red,
4 又恐東君莫識奴 Yet afraid that the Lord of the East does not recognize me.

1 蘭心 – orchid heart, refers to a young lady of grace and charm.

2 Unmarried girls are supposed to be under lock and key in their rooms and not allowed the outside of their homes.

4 Here, the Lord of the East could refer someone the girl likes. 奴 – slave, a self-deprecatory term for a young girl or wife.

Friday, March 3, 2023

Summer

1 荷葉碧綠四月氣 Lotus leaves are green under the weather in the Month of Four.
2 破水紅拳風吹微 Red fists bursting forth through the water as the wind is gentle.
3 晴天神怡暗香醉 A sunny day a freshed and carefree, yet inebriated to the faintly scented,
4 浮雲蜻蜓池上戲 Dragonflies jousting upon the clouds and the pond.

1 The lotus is a symbol of summer.

2 Lotus buds.

4 The reflection of clouds on the water’s surface.

Saturday, March 4, 2023

Autumn

1 重陽金菊設輝煌 So grand are the golden chrysanthemum decorations of Double Ninth,
2 妃嬪無幾賀明堂 But few imperial ladies came congratulating in the Hall of Distinction.
3 是否牡丹薔薇恩 Is it because of the love between the Peony and the Rambler Rose?
4 可憐宮花歲月黄 Alas, other palace flowers wasting into yellowness with passing years.

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

2 Different dynasties have different ranking systems in the imperial harem. A great reference to see how the harem ranks are translated in the following article,

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

明堂 is also known as the Hall of Enlightenment or Brightness.

http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Terms/mingtang.html

3 The peony is considered to be the queen of all flowers and as such, designated as the “national” flower. It is reputed that Empress Wu of the Tang dynasty preferred the Rosa Multiflora and has it painted with peonies to represent the “Two Holies”.

4 Or they being are afraid of Empress Wu? Those having any relationship with the Emperor always met their doom, including those who came before her. Even her own relatives died mysteriously.

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Of Yesteryears

This was written while on the last leg of my jog.

1 碧綠池塘蓮華香 Fragrance of lotus blooms fills the verdant pond,
2 水點蜻蜓浮映上 And dragonflies skimming upon floating reflections.
3 明媚好景雲烟夢 Like dreams and mists, such beauteous scenery will never last,
4 今刻何比當日陽 How can the sunlight of then be compared to those of yesteryears?

1 蓮華 sounds like 年華, youth
2 蜻蜓點水 has other connotation besides “skip deep”
3 Other meanings of 陽 can also be applied.

Sunday, February 26, 2023

After The Rains

Last night’s rainfall was about 2” and today, there was a storm break The streets were wet and in some places, water was flowing down from the higher levels. Towards the mountain side were still looming storm clouds while further away towards the city, the skies were blue with white fluffy clouds.

This poem can be reinterpreted as something else but I refrain commenting any further as I do not wish to be drawn into unnecessary inconveniences.

1 雨後山坡斜路溪 The rains had passed and path of mountain paths had become rivulets,
2 風過樹下千滴危 Beware of water droplets under tree canopies as the wind passes by.
3 西方烏雲仍未散 Dark clouds in the westerly direction had yet to disperse,
4 蓬島陽光無盡暉 But endless sunshine upon the Fairy Isles.

4 The Fairy Isles or the Blessed Isles are believed to be located in the Eastern Ocean. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Penglai

Saturday, February 25, 2023