郊道 - Through the Wilderness Path

This article started off as an entertaining distraction from a formal translation of Hsun Tzu's Exhortation to Learning.   Luring me away from the far more serious work ahead, this Chinese Musical was just the ticket. The lyrics are short and whimsical, and as an added temptation, there were two Chinese characters that I did not know.  Besides, the song is quite melodic.  To my dismay, however, as I began writing and trying to explain the choices I made for the translation, it became clear to me that it was going to a laborious and pedantic affair after all.

So I came to this idea in the end:  why not a comparative look at how books are translated and how movies  are subbed or subtitled?  Each medium comes with its own set of rules, obstacles and inherent limitations.  It should prove to be quite interesting.  I shall only touch lightly on these topics and not go off tangent from the real goal of this article, that is to translate the song's lyrics.  So I shall just dispense with all the details on how I arrived at my translation.

Subtitling is an art form unto itself.  Some view it as a summarization of the original language in another language; in other words, a very loose translation.  However, this is very deceptive thinking.  First of all, the biggest limitation is the size of the screen estate.  It can only hold so many words without distracting the audience from the movie.  Unlike translation in a book form, there are no pages and pages of space for footnotes and commentaries.  Such information can exceed the size of the translation piece. One must remember that the main reason of a movie is to provide visual enjoyment comfort, it is preferable that the target language line be no longer than the original and yet the crux and crucial information must be present to convey the actual emotion and tone. This means that many details are elided and even excised completely. 

In Chinese movies, there are two lines of subtitles shown in movie theaters, especially those screened in Southeast Asia.  One is in English and this is understandable; but Chinese also? Really!  The reason being that we may be Chinese as an ethnic group but our dialects are unintelligible to each other.  Therefore standard written Chinese is displayed so that all Chinese subgroups can enjoy the movie.  Remember first and foremost is that the movie is a visual entertainment money-making business.  Having these many lines of subtitling can be quite daunting and distracting to those who are not used to it.  At the same time, the audience is not going to be interested in the scholarly details.  As such, as long as the dialog is understood with all the tones and moods reflected accurately, then it is considered a good one. Reading subtitles consumes more mind processing power. Screen clutter must be avoided at all costs.

Another big constraint is that subtitles must synch with the dialogue; otherwise the delayed effect is of great annoyance.  Subbing, the art of making actors speak in a foreign language is nothing more than oral subtitling in my opinion.  However, this time the additional constraint to  make sure that spoken words must match the lip movements exactly.

Giving a title to a book or movie is even a shorter form of subtitling.  Not only is the real estate is at premium, the size of the book cover or the width of the page is even more limited than the screen. It has to summarize the content in just a few words.  Even if this is achieved, the main goal is to sell!  Thus titles must double as seductive advertisements.  Not without affection, I call this, the art of titling, as the whore of translation!  Any inaccuracy or precision in the translation can be thrown out of the window.  Following are some examples. I have provided the back translation for the benefit of the English reader.

English titles to Chinese:

Gone With the Wind       = 亂世佳人 (Beauty of Chaotic Times)

The Wizard of Oz          = 綠野仙踪 (Fairy Footprint of the Green Wilderness)

Oz, the Great & Powerful   = 魔境仙踪 (Demonic Border/World of the Fairy Footprint)

Frozen                     = 冰雪奇緣 (The Wondrous Adventure of Snow and Ice)

Chinese titles to English:

紅樓夢 = The Dream of the Red Chamber is sexier than The Dream of the Red Mansion

西遊記 = The Monkey King is more exciting than Journey To the West.

三國志 = Romance of the Three Kingdoms is more interesting than Records of the Three Kingdoms.

封神榜 = The Investiture of Gods is more intriguing than The Scroll of Conferring Gods.

鏡花緣 = Flowers in the Mirror is more romantic than The Tale of Destined Love.

My last example is to illustrate the mastery of the translator.  Lolita is a classic movie known to the Chinese audience outside the Mainland before the country was opened to the world as 一樹梨花壓海堂 (A Pear Tree Crushing the Begonia Blooms). This colorful and poetic Hong Kong title says it all. The educated Chinese will understand the allusion. I doubt that this 1962 movie would have been shown in Taiwan before Hong Kong because of the then martial law imposed there. The drab translation from Mainland China is 洛麗塔, a transliteration of the name. No imagination and a quick and lazy way out.

Back to the task at hand. The lyrics I am translating are from a Chinese musical called 血手印. The exact and precise translation is The Bloodied Hand Imprint. This blah title has no oomph in helping to sell the movie. It lacks imagination and luster. However, The Crimson Palm does! Like their svelte and curvaceous counterparts on the street, the whores of translation can sell charms and make dreams come true.

Here is the background to the story behind the lyrics. The hero and heroine were betrothed when they were young. However, the guy's family fell into poverty and the girl's family tried to renege on the match. Of course the lovers refused. The girl wanted to give him her golden hairpin so that he can sell it so that he could go to the capital and take the imperial examinations. By becoming the Number-One scholar, he can lift himself from a life of obscurity. This way, his father-in-law can no longer refuse the match. The plan was to have her maid hand him the golden hairpin in the night at the inner court garden. When the appointed time came, the scholar had to pass through a patch of wilderness to get to the backdoor of the inner garden. Upon reaching his destination, he discovered the maid had been murdered and he was accused…

The original lyrics and subtitles displayed originally on the screen while the actor is singing as he passed through the wilderness patch are in italicized blue. The green is my pedantic but precise translation. The italicized brown is my commentary.

郊道 Through the Wilderness Path

夜沉沉,聲悄悄, 月色昏暗. It's dark and late  

Late is the night, so late,

My steps so stealthily light,

And the moonlight so dark.

風淒淒,影搖搖,                         the wind is howling.

Cold are the winds, so freezing cold,

And shadows are swaying back and forth,

隕星曳空, 怪鳥長鳴.      And the birds are crying.

A falling star dragging the skies along,

And strange birds in their prolonged cries.

This is the phrase that caught my attention! I didn't know the meaning of 隕 and 曳.  In Cantonese, 曳 has a totally different meaning, being "naughty" or "inferior".

一路行來, 無人烟,         The road is desolate

Since I have been walking,

Nary a sign of human life,

嚇得我胆顫心寒                      and I'm scared.

Scaring me witless                   Literally, So scared that my gall is trembling and my heart grew cold.

啊…                     Ahhh…

佳人贈金 情義重,使我又愧又喜歡 I'm happy and ashamed too about the gift of gold.

A beautiful woman is bestowing gold upon me,

Her affection for me is strong and true,

She made me feel so ashamed and yet so happy.

眼見園門正半掩           The door is left ajar,

I see the garden door left ajar

想必是雪春在裡面         Xue Chun must be waiting.

I assumed Snow-Spring must be in there.

Snow-Spring is the name of a maid who was supposed to meet the scholar in the garden.

Started : Sunday, March 23, 2014

Completed: Monday, March 31, 2014

The Lamenting Beauty - 昭君怨

This translation came about when I happened to stumble onto this classical Chinese piece of music and there was an English interpretation of the lyrics.  I was aghast that the beauty of the original language was lost; not only this, but the tone and mood were not effectively expressed and, worse still, some of the interpretations were wrong and many things elided.  As such, I felt compelled to do a better job.

Below is a link to the best rendition of the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySnTTQfkAhg

The English interpretation came from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur0T3XI19E4

"Sitting on the aristocratic saddle,
Wang chao-chuan missed her Han emperor.

Mornings turned nights and nights turned mornings
Her melancholy journey appeared remote and hopeless.
Her backward glances only enhanced her anxiety.

The sinking bird hovered over the horizon
Of the endless desert;
The sad call to Hung Yang broke in vain.
The dim moon reflected on the faraway Yenmen gates;
Outside which the frosts fell amid the gallops of the horses continued.
She muses and missed the Han emperor!

She started to sing sadly,
And moved by the scenes around.
Playing on the Piba and looking back on her home ,
Her heart broke when she thought of
The favours received and the gushing feelings she cherished
She was lost in musing the future uncertainties and past dreams.

Again, she sang on old places,
Which caused her deep sadness.
Playing her piba, she glanced at the wild prairie:
The journey being long and tedious; the sky dull and aloof.
She lost all her appetite in viewing the alien lands
Of broken mountains and stale water.

She stopped singing her songs on the past,
But the future is barren and desperate.
In the fading vibrations of the piba,
She felt her destitution---
Lonely and alone and wishfully hope
That her soul would one day return to her homeland,
Forever wishing as eternal as the earth and sky."

My translation:

昭君怨 The Lament of Chao Jun

王昭君, Wang Chao Jun

悶坐雕鞍思憶漢皇 In idle boredom, she sat upon the carved saddle, thinking of her Han Emperor.

朝朝暮暮,    Mornings and evenings,

暮暮朝朝     Evenings and mornings...

黯然神傷,    Melancholy and dejectedly;

前途茫茫,    Her future bleak; lost in a vast haze.

極目空翹望,  Raising her head, she strained her stares emptily into the distance.

見平沙雁落   A wild goose dipping from its horizontal flight,

聲斷衡陽     Its cries stopping at the City of the Cow Horns Beam¹,

月昏黃       The evening yellow moon,

返照雁門關上 Reflecting upon the gate of the Wild Goose Fort²

塞外風霜     The wind and frost beyond the frontiers,

悠悠馬蹄忙   Pensive from the drawn out galloping hooves of horses.　

整日思想     Entire days, she spent in thoughts;

長夜思量     Long nights, lost in them.

魂夢憶君王   In dreams, her soul longing for her Lord.

陽關初唱     At the Fortress of the Sun,³ her song began,

往事難忘     Difficult 'tis for her to forget the past.

琵琶一疊回首望故國 One strum⁴ of her pipa, she looked back towards her country,

河山總斷腸         Its rivers and mountains broke her heart,

憶家庭景況,                In sorrow, missing the scenes of  her family.

樁萱恩重           Her parents, to whom she is indebted⁵

隸萼情長,          To her siblings, her love eterne⁶

遠別家鄉           Now she was parting, far far away from her home.

舊夢前塵           Old dreams of her former life,

前塵舊夢           Her former life's old dreams…

空惆悵　           Are now but empty sorrows.

陽關再唱           Still her song lingered on at the Fortress of the Sun.

觸景神傷,          Grazing upon the scenery, dispirited she had become.

琵琶二疊           On the second strumming of her pipa,

凝眸望野草　       Her eyes frozen to the grasses of the wild.

閑花驛路長         Idly the beauty rested but the road to the relay station will be long.

問天涯茫茫 She asked Heaven, in the vastness of the horizon⁷.

平沙雁落   Down went the wild goose,

大道霜寒　 The frost upon the highway  cold.

胡地風光   The scene of alien lands now unfolded⁸,

賸水殘山     Scattering rivers and of mountains,

殘山賸水   The mountains and rivers, far and few in between,

無心賞　      No joy in partaking the views.

陽關終唱   Soon her song at the Fortress of the Sun will end

後事淒涼   And the aftermath of her journey will be one of forlorn.

琵琶三疊   On the third strum of her pipa,

前途望身世 Her future looked back at her life.

飄零付杳茫,Drifting alone into the distance and out of sight,

囑君望古陽 Imploring her Lord to gaze [once more] upon this Sun Fortress of old.

魂歸漢地   Her spirit will [then] return to the soil of Han⁹

目睹朝陽　 Her eyes be witnessing the morning sun,

久後思量,  Long after pondering in her thoughts,

地老天長   The earth and heaven will grow old,

天長地老   The heaven and earth aging away.

長懷想　   Eternal are her heartfelt thoughts,

一曲琵琶   One melody from her pipa,

恨正長     Eternal, her regrets shall be.

1.  http://baike.baidu.com/view/264643.htm

2.  This line can be ambiguous.  Without context and because the absence of punctuation, it can be translated as Reflecting, the Wild Goose Gate is locked. This fortress is so named because of the geographical features in which it was built to look to like a wild goose taking flight.  It was where the Han Dynasty and the Hsiung Nu had their exchanges.  Of China's nine fortresses, this is considered to be the most important.

3. This frontier fort was built by Emperor Han Wu Di.  This marked the borders of Han China, thus a term to mean the extent of the Chinese sovereignty. 

4. 疊 = pile.  For those who know how to play the pipa or seen how a pipa is played, there's a kind of strumming that has a "piling" sound effect.

5. 樁, a mythical tree known for its longevity.  A term now to denote the father. 萱 is Hemerocallis flava, supposedly makes one "elated" when consumed and because it grows in the north side of the house where the mother usually resided, it is now to mean one's mother.  Taken together, it meant one's biological parents.

6. 隸= attached/attachment 萼 = calyx and stem of a flower.  Thus representing sibling love.  In some versions, 棣 is used.  It has the same sound and is the same character as 弟 for younger brother. I believed that 隸 is the correct character; the calyx and stem is closely bonded so that the bloom can be held ie the bonded love of siblings.

7. The sentence should be parsed as, 問天, 涯茫茫 and not in any other way as it would not make sense in this context.

8.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarian

9.  i.e. my country and home.

My Childhood

Many had asked in private communication as to why I seemed to be in such dedication to correct essays during my "down time" at work and yet; did not seem to ask for anything in return. Some thanked me for such "kindness".

I am sad to say that this is not entirely true.  I have my selfish reasons. The return is the countless triggerings in my mind. I do not know how the firing of my neurons would end.  However, mostly ended positively; for they inspire me both in my writing and musical composition. Sometimes, their ideas are lifted; sometimes they become slightly different gateways. This is how I am able to enter to these slightly different universes to enjoy the immense scenery there.  For this I am most grateful. 

Sometimes, they reminded me of things long forgotten, like a pile of rubbish in a dusty corner of my mind, until I espied a glint from the midst.  And; as I approached, it sparkled, scintillated and beckoning.  Then as my fingers caressed the filigrees of the light that it finally shone in its full glory.  Like a magical touch, the full realization of what it is now became clear…

Yesterday, I corrected Hoan's entry entitled "My Childhood"¹.  In it, she wrote, "I often played a game of skill with sticks and a ball…"  Given my experience and not knowing the Vietnamese culture, I almost wanted to correct it to "hockey".  On a second thought, it is most probably not what she had in mind.  Finally, I changed it to "I often played skillfully with ball and sticks…".  Hoan wrote privately and sent a video link² to explain this traditional Vietnamese game, called Chơi chuyền.  

Upon looking at the video, I at once realized that it is a variation of "Pickup sticks" game but with the inclusion of a ball in a game of dexterity, coordination and mental concentration.  This is my gateway to a slightly different universe.  The video is the glint and is now glowing brightly for in my mind. The filigrees of light are reaching into the dark abyss of my mind and dredging out some of my own precious childhood memories lying dormant at the bottom.

I remembered how grandmama, in order to alleviate my boredom, stopped her work at the sewing machine and called me to go into the kitchen to get her a cup of uncooked rice grains.  She told me that she had something to show me. I was excited because even as a kid, I knew she was making blanket covers from different colored rectangular scraps of cloth.  Now what do the grains of rice have anything to do with the making of a blanket?

The filigrees of light are now coalescing and glowing even more brightly as I write, remembering how this grand old lady gave her unconditional love to me.

Eons had passed in the meantime.  I have to thank Hoan's video link for this.  Thank you. For you are that light in making me think of my beloved maternal grandmother and all the hours spent telling me bedtime stories of Old China. 

Without her, I won't be what I am partly today.

And when I returned, there was a piece of rag being cut into five³ smaller triangular shapes.  My eyes grew in wide wonder as she asked for the rice grains.  There she filled them up and painstakingly sewed them into a pyramidal shape.  When she was done, she grouped them together to form a shape called the "Plum Blossom Heart" (梅花心).  There she taught me the rules of how to pick them up quickly and put them back in a different pattern.  It's an variation of Hoan's Chơi chuyền or "Jacks", "Knucklebones" or "Astralagoi" in English.  

However, I had forgotten the name she called it.  From searching on the internet, I found that it is called "Catch 7", "Pick up Gold"⁴ …

Thus my reason for correcting assiduously.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

1.  http://www.italki.com/entry/373204

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJKyHeoY-mo&app=desktop

3.  The standard game has seven pieces.  However, my hands were tiny of then and she didn't want to make it too difficult for me. 

4. However, these names do not sound familiar to me.  So after consulting HK gurus from a site, its name is "Wah Tzi"  (搲子)

長安雨 - Changan Tears

流水急急,             Waters flowing hurriedly
今日春光來          Today's spring is here
明朝去.                 Gone tomorrow.

秋到泪水下更多. Autumn approaches, even more tears flow.
半边空寢,             Half the empty bed,
半边愁.                 Half the sorrow.

日落月起心思思. The sun sets, the moon rises, mired in thoughts.
人在何處?            Where is he?
歸还昔日夢.         Alas but to return to the dreams of old.

流水速速,             Fast waters,
往東遊.                 Wandering towards the east.
花落葉飛.              Blossoms fell, leaves in flight.
辜負丹心念.          Disappointing my sincere thoughts.
扭轉乾坤有何用?  Of what use to turn Heaven and Earth upside down?
追回舊影一場空.   Futility in chasing dreams of old.

一樹梨花壓海棠1, A treeful of pear blossoms weighing down upon the begonias.
半天楓葉伴明月.   Half the sky drowned in maple leaves accompanying the bright moon.

1. Without going into the nifty details of the allusion, figuratively it means an older man taking a much younger bride. The white pear blossoms refer to the whiteness of the groom and begonias, the redness of youth of the bride.

Sunday, October 07, 2013

Today is Thursday, June 05, 2025.  Like the first line of this poem, time has floweth too fast, almost 12 years had passed like a twinkle of an eye.  Here's an update of the poem.  I hoped that during this days gone by had been fruitful to see progress evolved.  Here' the updated version...

01 流水急急流滾滾      Hurried are the flowing waters, flowing in turmoil

02 今刻春光明朝去      Spring of today, gone tomorrow.

03 秋來淚更多               Autumn cometh with even more tears,

04 半邊寢空半邊愁      Half bed empty, half side sorrow.

05 日落月沉思萬緒      The sun is setting, the moon sinking - with thoughts of myriad emotions.

06 人何處?人何處?      Where is he?  Where is he?

07 難歸昔日夢               'tis difficult returning to dreams of old!

08 水流遠遠水遙遙      Waters floweth far away, waters so distant,

09 飛花落葉往東遊      Flowers in flight, leaves a falling, towards the east they wandered,

10 可憐丹心負               Pity this betrayed sincere heart!

11 還我舊時還我醉      Return my former times, bring my stupor back!

12 扭轉乾坤移星辰      Even turning Heavens and Earth topsy-turvy, constellations transforme

13 又何用?  又何用?    Of what use is then?  Of what use is then?

14 追回舊影空               Shadows of old chased back, but still in emptines.

15 一樹梨花壓海棠      A tree of pear blossoms pressing down upon the begonia,

16 半天楓葉伴枯情      Half the sky of maple leaves accompanying withered love.

17 長安一夜雨聲多      One night in the City of Eternal Peace - too much clangor from the rain,

18 冥府無日雷音細      Nary a day passes in Hades - too faint a sound from salvation!

01 Flowing water denotes time passing too quickly.

02 Reminiscent of Po Chu I's poem, 來如春夢不多時, 去似朝雲無覓處 - about his dalliance with a courtesan.

03 This line is intentionally structured to be a short bust to break the monotony and rhythm of the many long lines in the poem.

05 "thoughts of myriad emotuions" is a suggestion from ChatGPT which I thought was superior than my original.  Have to admit, the program is far from perfect but once in a while, upon hitting the right spot, a job well done.

06 人 is more gender neutral than 君 to reflect modern standards of inclusive diversity.  Use of repetition to reinforce the weight of the very short line of having three characters.

08 I wanted the second stanza to be mirrored but at the same time, some variation to break any monotony caused by this. 

09 Due to the geography of China, rivers always flow toward the east.  "wander" was chosen over "flow" as I like to limit repetition of characters to a minimum.  Rather than using the old trope, this word connotates "aimlessly" blown by the wind to reach their conclusion.  Flowers are seen as youth soaring to the heavens while the aged like leaves, fall to the ground.

10 The mirroring effect from line 3.

11 The idea of this line comes from ChatGPT for something else.  I thought that this fits well here and shamelessly appropriated it. 

12 移 means "moved" but it lacks power and "transformed" is used.

13 The mirroring effect from line 6.

15 海棠 is technically the Chinese crabapple but is too wordy and so begonia is used.  Pear blossoms are white - hence white haired.  Begonias can be red, to denote youthful bloom in the face.  This line comes from an allusion about Su Dong Po's retort to his 81-year-old teacher on marrying an 18-year-old girl when the teacher wrote a poem boasting of his manliness.

https://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2014/05/lolita.html

16 An attempt to form a couplet.  Red withered maple leaves flying in autumn to suggest aged days and therefore can be translated as "aged days, withered love" but this results in the loss of original imagery, an iteration to line 9.

17 Changan, the City of Eternal Peace is used as a symbol of past grandeur since it was the most magnificient city in all of Chinese history.  It's imperial palace is about 6.7 times larger than the Forbidden CIty in Peking.  Rain symbolizes tears.

18 Another attempt to form a second couplet.  冥 means "dark" and 府 means "seat of government" i.e. purgatory.  "Thunder sound" refers to the "quiet" roar" of Buddhist chants, hence signifying salvation.  聲 means sounds coming from upper regions such as the sky while 音 are those made on the lower regions such as the earth or hades etc.  Thus,  聲音 means all sounds.  Hence we have word combinations like 風聲 but never 風音.  However, there are exceptions such as 歌聲 to mean earthly songs so mellifluous that they came from the celestial world.

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 

A Belated Mid-Autumn Party

This short essay is for my foreign friends from italki who are curious about my

belated Mid-Autumn Party.  This year, the Lantern Festival falls on a Thursday.  Unfortunately, it is not a public holiday for everyone and so no choice but to have a belated celebration on  the following Saturday.  I had invited over a hundred people but thank goodness not everyone showed up at the same time, otherwise my place would be a wee bit overcrowded.

For those interested how a typical U.S. West Coast lifestyle is like, especially in Los Angeles, we love to entertain in our homes.  It does not matter if your place is huge or not.  I always say, you can always entertain a few close friends even in a closet.  Others say, they live with their parents, so I countered, what's wrong with inviting your family to join in the fun?  If they don't like it, they can go and watch a double-feature movie in the theatres or just sneak into another one.  Others would give me cultural reasons not to.  To me, it is just an excuse.  For me, to entertain in one's home is to show your warmth and sincerity.

What you see in the movies are either the super-rich or celebrities throwing lavish parties to impress or to get connections.  In the ordinary lives of us mere mortals, the most common thing to do is a potluck.  This won't put a strain on the host and there will always a great variety of food, dessert and drinks for all to enjoy.  My party started at 1 p.m., we did a potluck lunch with people bringing Chinese BBQ meats, Jewish quiches, sushi, Indian samosas, lamb bryani and American staples like baked beans and corn on the cob.  Even though I don't drink, there is always plenty of wine and beer flowing around. There is only a friend in the entire group who normally brings hard liquor such as vodka, whiskey etc.  Of course, the Asian group preferred hot Chinese tea and most would  gyrate towards coffee of any kind.  There was so much to eat that we didn't have to go out or have takeout food in the evening.

As night fell, more friends arrived.  The fire pit was fired up and people gathered around it like a bunch of moths circling a light.  As the social atmosphere began to mellow, everyone started enjoying the warmth and conversations became more interesting.  I'm just being nice.  Nothing is more salacious than gossip about people you know!  That is what makes any party swing.  This time around, plenty of people brought dessert.  This was what I told them to bring if they intended to come later in the evening.  However, they were free to choose whatever their favorites were.  There was a symbolic gesture of a small box of moon cake.  After all this is its festival namesake.  Not many people like to eat them anyway.

My new toy, the fire pit, was the main hit at the party, followed closely by another group with musical talents.  They crowded around the piano.  People sang and people played.  Drinks continued to flow unceasingly and everyone had a great time.  Thank goodness, my neighbours were also having their parties, albeit not for the same reason.  So everyone is not worried about someone calling the police because of the loud noises that the neighbourhood is making.  Of course, I was making the most noise.  My voice boomed into the night to ensure that everything is picture perfect.  I had to make sure that everyone felt welcome and had enough to eat but not too much drinking!  This is because drunk driving is a serious offence in California and also I don't want my friends to get hurt or get into trouble.

Finally by midnight, most had left.  However a few close friends remained and we sat winding down by the fire pit for some quiet exchanges.  By now the autumn moon had risen high up into the sky and over the obstructed bamboo skyline.   The place was still and a gentle breeze rose, sweeping the flames of the fire pit.  We gazed into the fire as we were mesmerized by the flickering tongues of the flames.  Each of us rocking in our chairs in different tempos as different thoughts were marching in our minds.  One of us suddenly recited,

金風梳月影, The golden breeze brushing the shadows of the moon,

玉露點秋香. Jade dew touching the fragrance of autumn.

月明心緒寧, The moon is bright and my mood is at ease,

徘徊昨夜夢. Lingering in dreams of last night.

I see someone was in his poetic mood. On the surface, the poem is innocuous as can be.  The "golden breeze" and "jade dew" are symbols of autumn; a poem describing an autumn scene with the poet's feelings.  After a while in deep thought, I began to suspect something is amiss.  "Autumn fragrance" can also be a name of a girl, especially the name of maid in this traditional Chinese story (唐伯虎點秋香) of how a flirty scholar is trying to seduce her.  Oh ho!  Crouched in poetic imagery, is my friend trying to brag about his last night's conquest?

But before I could go further, another chimed in a poem of his own.

春風笑少年, The spring breeze laughing at youth

夏花無限嬌. Unlimited is the beauty of summer flowers.

秋雪豈能有, How can there be snow in autumn?

冬月醉長夜. The winter's moon, drunk in the night.

今宵百花樓, Tonight at the House of Hundred Blooms,

明日水東流. Gone tomorrow, like the waters flowing east.

For a long time, there was silence in the air except the creaking of the rockers.  For a long time I wondered why the mood had changed even though I detected a euphemism of brothel in the last poem.  Finally 2 a.m. approached and everyone started to get up giving the excuse that it was time to part and thanked me for a wonderful party.  I was tired too and called it a night.  The next day, I recalled last night's poems and began to write them down.  As I was translating the poem, suddenly from the written form, I found the answer to my last night's question. 

Reading the first two columns from left to right and from the top to bottom, the characters from the first four lines form two Chinese phrases, "Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter" and "Wind, Flower, Snow Moon".  The first phrase is just a description of the seasons of the year but in Chinese can symbolically mean the four stages of a person's life; his youth, his peak, his declining years and his final days.  The second phrase originally meant the poetic beauty of nature.  However, now degenerates to a description of having a dissolute life of wine and women! 

No wonder last night's atmosphere abruptly changed.  I am sure one of my friend was laughing at the age of the bragger.  I guess those two won't be seeing each other for quite a while. 

Jeff, Jeff, Jeff… You are too slow in catching on things of this calibre.  Now you know the reason of this notebook entry.

A Lament On A Mid-Autumn Festival

Thursday, September 19, 2013

As of this writing, it is about 11pm on a Thursday night.  The autumn moon is hanging brightly  above a cloudless sky of Los Angeles which I call home.  Since this is the US, unfortunately, there is no holiday for us.  I envy the long weekend holidays in those countries that officially celebrate this delightful festival known also as the "Lantern Festival".

It doesn't matter. I'm going to play hookie tomorrow and follow Hong Kong's example.  This is my third entry on this festival since I joined italki.  How time flies.  Unlike the past two years, there was no gathering on this actual day of the festival.  Just all by myself, treating myself to something good under the bamboos and viewing the bright circular orb up in the cloudless sky.

My memories harkened me back to my days of old; with lanterns in our hands, my siblings and I would explore the darkness within the safety confines of our garden.  It was one of the rare occasions that we were allowed to venture out into the night and not having to go to bed at the appointed hour; to which we thought, was ridiculously early.  In the daytime, the large garden (to our eyes) was a friend but in the night, a scary stranger and yet we could not resist. In trepidation, we surged onwards into the darkness. And yet we hoped that some monster would jump out at us and frightened the shit out of us!  Yes, those were the simple thrills of childhood.

Then, inevitably, sometime into our foraging, one of us would trip and the  lantern caught fire from the lighted candles within.  This was our biggest thrill of the night since no monster had ever come out.  Of course the one whose lantern now laid in ashes would be in tears.  Our rambunctious actions would cause a faraway shout from grandmama telling us to be quiet as she prepared the table with offerings to the moon and its inhabitants.  She had cooked a special dish of conches or some kind of shellfish with spiral shells.  Of course, I would never eat such strange looking stuff.  The feast will begin just after midnight.  Mother would be the ever dutiful wife managing my father's activities with his buddies or with the relatives and keeping an eye on things in the front.  Not to mention is there was the ever present sound of mahjong tiles with an occasional cry from the winning woman or curses from the losers.  Not to be outdone, the men too have their act in their poker games. 

Such is the life of a mid-autumn festival of the yesteryears.  As a matter of fact, it is the same for all festivals with the adults.  Us, the children just have to invent more imaginative games to entertain ourselves.  It was a good time when the huge clan would descend and congregate at Grandfather's house.  Cousins were like strangers whom we knew by face.  Even though we lived in the same town but because of different schools we attended, we hardly ever saw each other except during these clan festivities.  When Grandfather was alive, all have to make obeisance and the mandatory pilgrimage to the ancestral house.

Most of the people in my memories, well, are now just memories.  Some had gone to the great beyond, others no longer in touch; for our clan is as factious as China's Age of Warring States.  When the grandparents had moved on, the later generations no longer saw the need of such gatherings anymore.  No more emperor to please, for each is now a warlord of his own realm.  Sad isn't it?  As for my siblings, some had married and now we lived in different cities.  Though we are close, some are technophobic and even refused to be on Facebook.

Anyway, here I am by myself.  My good buddies?  Some are back in their ancestral countries; some on business and others don't have the courage as I did to play hookie.  Alone? Yes, physically but not so mentally; for memories are good companions.  They lull, they cajole and even play tricks on your mind.

The wind is cool but my body is comfortably warm as I have been sipping hot Chinese tea by myself. Rocking back and forth on my deckchair, in sway and nostalgia, I view the moon with a different frame of mind tonight.  In some ways both of us are the same.  One high above in the sky and nary a cloud to be seen and the other, someone far down on this earth, surrounded by quietude but with one half empty pot of hot tea...

Out from the dusty corridors of my mind, I hear the voice of grandmama relating the lunar tales of yore.  How the Fairy Chang-O went to live on the moon.  Then there is the immortal woodcutter forever chopping down a self-healing osmanthus tree.  With each blow at the tree, the wound would recover immediately.  Like Sisyphus, he was punished for his hubris or laziness.  Let us not forget too, the other lunar inhabitants in the form of the Jade Rabbit and the Three-Legged Toad.  Thank you grandmama, for you have enriched my life by telling me all these and other wonderful tales.  You have opened my imagination and let me enter into a world of splendiferous beings.

Then I espied on the tin cover of the moon cake packaging, there in her bosom, was Chang-O's Jade Rabbit being caressed lambently by her against the backdrop of the bright full moon.  New thoughts came flooding and replacing my memories of yesteryears and casting them back into the dusty corridors of my mind.  The moonlight was bright enough for me and with a pen, to scribble down my thoughts on a piece of paper.

竹下深坐嘗月餅,Under the bamboo, I sat deep in thought and tasting moon cakes,

風吹樹搖落英雨.The wind blows; the trees sway and flowers fall like rain.

廣寒嫦娥一仙子,In the Great Cold Palace, is the Fairy Chang-O,

懷擁玉兔非郎君.Caressing the Jade Rabbit in her bosom; no lover it can ever be.

With this, I can now tap-tap on my laptop…