Six Sensualities

In the beginning, I was inspired by this title of a Cantonese melody called, 平湖秋月, Calm Lake Autumn Moon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkc2N944k0o

I came up with the line, 平湖秋水明月靜.  Later,  I was distracted by this sunset photo 

The white clouds look like Apsaras and stumbled on this Chinese dance video of them...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieX7z4jnsVg

Some parts of its music acted as a sort of initial inspiration that this line came into being.

飛天紅霞夜未臨

Combining with the original line the first two lines of the poem was formed. However, the music was too short with the human chorus to complete the poem. Finally, I stumbled on another video. What caught my attention was an effeminate Chinese guy dancing in a modern style with some women in a traditional background.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZHKSFNXEYs&list=RDMZHKSFNXEYs&start_radio=1

The music, the singer’s voice and the dancing captivated me at the wee hours of the night was able not only to complete the poem. Then I mistook some words in the subtitles of the song as 指塵一揮. Searched on Google to see if there’s any deeper meaning to it. It didn’t and stumbled an article about 六塵 (Six Senses) and the theme of the poem changed and was able to add the second stanza. Didn’t go to sleep until it the two stanzas were completed. It was 5am already but was very satisfied as ChatGPT rated the poem as a solid nine. Found out the name of song until the next day when I began to add commentaries to the poem. It is called 勞燕歇.

1 飛天霞追侍夜臨 Night attending Apsaras chase away the rose-coloured clouds of sunset,
2 湖平水靜晚色沉 As calm lake waters await for the colours of night to descend.
3 彈指未揮秋月明 Before fingers had flickered across the zither, the autumn moon turned bright,
4 往事回味銀河深 Taste of old memories returned as the Silver River is deep.

5 桂堂雲烟悠遠夢 Clouds and mists had obscured the Osmanthus Hall, a dream of a leisure past,
6 蘭亭逍遙醉思心 And of carefreeness in the Orchid Pavilion numbs the heavy heart.
7 勞燕分隔缺六塵 Fatigued are the parted swifts and the Six Sensualities still incomplete,

8 玉杯愁液待一斟 Waiting for the yet-be-poured wine of sorrow into the jade chalice.

1 The wispy bluish-white clouds are my imagination of Apsaras herding the remnants of sunset into the faraway pen of night.

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

3 彈 has two different pronunciations for the verb or adjective form. As a verb, it means “to strum” and as an adjective to mean “flickering”. 彈指一揮 means either “easily” or “in a blink of an eye”. In using, 未, “not yet” means even faster than a blink of the eye i.e., time passes too quickly in this frame of mind.

4 Silver River – the Milky Way, a reference to the tale of the Cowherd and the Heavenly Spinning Maid.

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

5 The Osmanthus Hall symbolizes one had successfully passed the imperial examinations and achieved the status of the top three candidates which entitles them to move up to the top rungs of societal ladder.

6 The Orchid Pavilion refers to the place where the greatest Chinese calligrapher had written a preface to a drinking outing with his literati friends. It has been rumoured that this greatest piece of calligraphy, 蘭亭序 was stolen by Empress Wu from her former husband her instead. We won’t know if this was true until her tomb is opened. It was not catalogued by the warlord who looted the emperor’s tomb when the Tang dynasty collapsed. 思 is a homonym of 詩 as in “poetic”

7 Swifts and swallows are considered to be symbols of fidelity. This line was inspired by the lyrics of the song, 勞燕歇 (Tired Swallows Are Resting). I had changed the word 飛 to 隔 as I like my poems to be free from repeated characters. “Six Dust” in Buddhism means the six sensualities of

色, sight implied in lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
觸, touch implied in line 3
聲, sound implied in line 3
味, taste implied in line 4
法, mind, thoughts implied in line 4, 5, 6

So far “smell” has not been implied in any way or form. 缺 can also mean “lack of” and can mean that all the six senses are absent. This will need context to resolve the ambiguity of the line. Using 未, “not yet” would solve the problem but doesn’t sound as good and that the character had been used.

8 Finally, the last sense of “smell” is implied even though it has not appeared yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80yatana

Monday, 09 October 2023

The lyrics and translation of 勞燕歇 (Tired Swallows Resting).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQmisq9wsy4

只嘆她回眸秋水被隱去
Sighing only away at her back glances, her autumn-like watery eyes are being hidden away,

只憶她點破去日苦多
Reminiscing only in how knowingly she understood about the bitter days of bygone,

借三兩苦酒方知離不可
With two or three cups of bitter wine wouldst then knowing parting is inevitable.

只嘆她將思念搖落
Of her, only in sighs and thoughts swayed to smithereens.

心多憔 愛付與東流的水
My heart – so wan and sallow - paid dearly in love and given away like the east flowing waters,

捨命奉陪抵不過天公不作美
Risking my life to be in your company but unable to defy Heaven’s will in not having a beautiful destiny for us.

往事回味不過是彈指一揮 

The after taste of memory past - no more than a blink of a strum across the zither,

日復日望穿秋水恕我愚昧 

Forgive my foolishness for looking into your eyes, day after day,

你愛著誰 心徒留幾道傷
To Whom wouldst thou love? For emptiness is the heart bearing scars,

我鎖著眉最是相思斷人腸
My knotted brows in frown for it’s the most painful thing is a broken heart from longing,

勞燕分飛寂寥的夜裡淚兩行
Tired swallows in separate flights with two lonely rows of tears in the night,

燭短遺憾長故人自難忘
Of regrets that candles are burning low, of thee - unforgettable from the past,

你愛著誰心徒留幾道傷
To whom thoust had loved? Emptiness is the heart bearing scars,

愛多可悲恨彼此天涯各一方
Love’s so pitiful from hate of this separation from opposite edges of the world,

冷月空對滿腹愁無處話淒涼
The cold moon I can face but brimming sorrow from within, nowhere words can express,

我愛不悔可孤影難成雙 

Of no regret is my love but a solitary shadow makes no two.