One Summer Dawn

It’s summer and I had to change my jogging schedule to avoid the daylight heat. This morning, I started at 5am when it is still nighttime and cool… Halfway through, the sun was peeking out in a ball of fiery red. However, a few seconds later, when it was over the rooftops, it had turned yellow and all the rosy clouds were gone, replaced by white ones on the eastern front and dark colored ones in the other direction. This poem is the result of this experience.

1 曦暉力倦十里紅 Short is the distance of red in the languid glow of sunrise,
2 情無逐走百家夢 Without mercy chasing away dreams of countless sleepers.
3 霎顧朝霞藏甚處 A quick glance and wondered where do rosy clouds hide?
4 日窺屋簷劍光同 The sun peeped over rooftop eaves - a gleaming sword brandished.

5 夏熱慾嘗秋涼時 Amidst summer’s heat, desiring for a cool taste of autumn’s time,
6 冬寒憶望春暖逢 In winter's cold, yearning and hoping for spring’s meeting of warmth.
7 季別輪迴用何有 Of what use there be when seasons come and go?
8 如此人性盡莫窮 ‘tis the human nature to be insatiable and bottomless.

1 “Ten” is not numerically used but to represent a short distance because the sun had just “woken” up.

2 Literally, “Merciless is the dispelling of dreams in a hundred families”. Likewise, “a hundred” is just used to mean “many”. “Merciless” is used because of the sun’s selfishness. It won’t have others to dream on.

3. Time passes too quickly – for in a moment’s distraction of thinking how many dreams no longer exist, the beauty of the morning is gone. At the same time, asking rhetorically where they went. I opted for 甚 instead of as I dislike having repeated characters.

4 Implied the fleetness of beauty – a momentary distraction on pondering where the rosiness had gone, the answer is that the bright sun had it “slain”. Implied the distaste of the protagonist in seeing how hot the sun had become.

5, 6 The seasons are used to describe how mankind is not easily satisfied. Once obtained, no longer treasured but to yearn for something yet to be possessed.

7 輪迴 is the Wheel of Transmigration in Chinese mythology. Can be used either as a noun or a verb phrase.

8 This is because the human heart for desire is bottomless.

Friday, Jul 14, 2023