A Eulogy For A Friend

This is for a friend who passed away in his sleep at his parents' home after seeing him at a picnic a week before.  I was quite shocked at the news even though he did not look too well on that day...

1 不願愁雲別凡家 Unwilling is the cloud of gloom departing from the mortal family,
2 騰向蓬山晚紫霞 Flying towards the Blessed Isles as purple clouds of the eve.
3 人生來去總長短 Comings and goings of life - be they long or short,
4 似夢非夢是真假 Like once upon a dream or not - whether real or fuzzy now matters not.

1 In Cantonese, 魂 (soul) and 雲 (cloud) are pronounced exactly the same. Chinese does not like direct terms associated with things unpleasant or ominous. This line implies that the departing soul in his previous existence is one with immortals or being one himself or someone of great virtue.

2 The Blessed Isles is another euphemism. In legends, these three isles of immortality is located in the Eastern Ocean. Since he is such a private person, I likened him to the shrouding mists, protecting the Isles from prying mortal eyes. Purplish tinged mists are always associated with fairyness of the place, very much like the mists of Avalon in western legends.

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

3 “long or short” can also mean the “ups and downs”

4 Chinese believe that one should not take things in life too seriously as they are but a dream and whatever earthly possessions, relationships in the end are like ethereal mists and fog.

Wednesday, June 7, 2023