A Restless Night

Had a difficult time trying to sleep and my mind was racing about the events of today, my porcelain panel being broken, etc. In the end, I tried to come up with two lines…

寒宮無情銀河掃
凌空獨照橫烟霧

Could not think of anything thing else to go forward. Finally, getting up from the bed and went onto the internet to read and watch some videos. The 3rd line came as 莫見蓬山穿雲海. In the end, when went back to bed that I suddenly had an idea with the 3rd line as last three characters of the last line being 莫見蓬山當如無. With this and more refinements in the morning…

1 天涯朗月星河掃 At the world’s end, the bright moon sweeps away the brilliance of the Milky Way,
2 凌空獨照橫烟霧 Upon the rising mists, it shines alone in the vastness of the sky.
3 雲海仙界何人識 In this great ocean of clouds, who wouldst recognize its fairyness?
4 莫見蓬山當初無 The Immortal Isles not seen does not mean there’s no prior existence!

4 蓬山 is the short for 蓬萊山, a mountain in the Blessed Isles in the Eastern Ocean.  當初 is not taken as a unit to mean “at that earlier time”, “originally”. 當 is used as a verb to mean “treat as”, “pretend” etc., and 初無 “don’t have it originally”. Hence in Cantonese, this is pronounced in the 3rd tone and not as the 1st.

Sunday, July 23, 2023