Ode to the Mochi

白灘橋一渡 Through the white sands is a bridge to cross,
青海眼前浩 Vastness is the ocean blue ahead.
今日勤學有 Today’s diligent studies,
明朝盡頭無 Tomorrow’s unlimited success.

 青海, The Blue Ocean is also name of a person. Thus the line means that his future vast success that is in front of him only if he crosses the bridge of diligent study.

   

One Pot Hot -- 一壺熱

 The title was the starting inspiration.  The original idea was that when snowflakes fall upon the warm pot, they dissolve and like tears flow from it.  However, I could not think of the words to convey the idea.  Perhaps sometime in the future.

雪影寒飛一壺熱 Snowflake shadows flutter in the cold and one pot hot, 
寂寞朗照無緣結 Shining brightly in loneliness but not destined.
心冰淚冷總是夢 The heart is frosted and tears - icicle cold but in the end, still a dream,
舉杯嗟餘難對月 A cup lifted in sighs, unable to bear looking at the moon.

Friday, November 08, 2019

Across From From Each Other

 

 

1 弦歌酒宴舉目同 Banquet music of the zithers rose, our eyes met at the same time,
2 猶豫曾似昨夜夢 In hesitation, as if a dream from last night.
3 暗淚先滴杯未落 Secret tears a trickled even before the wine cup is at rest,
4 梅雨無聲雪地紅 Silent plum blossom rain, staining the snow-covered ground in red.

5 一春十六牡丹盛 One spring of sixteen, when peonies are blossoming in profusion,

6 亭外兩心蝶戀逢 Ill-met are the two hearts of butterfly lovers by the pavilion.
7 可恨今世女兒身 Spiteful is this life of a girl’s body,
8 遺憾樓高困彩鳳 The regrets of a multi-colored phoenix; in the high tower imprisoned.

1.Taken and adapted from a line in Thousand Character Classic (千字文) 弦歌酒宴, 接杯舉觴

5. An allusion to The Peony Pavilion 牡丹亭 where the hero dreamt of the heroine. The play was considered obscene because of free choice of love which goes against the grain of Confucian ethics.

6. Another allusion – The Butterfly Lovers, Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet.

7. Women in ancient China are considered as properties of the parents, then the husband when married and then of the sons if the father is gone. However, there are loopholes because of filial piety. There are many strong women in the long history of China. The most famous being Empress Wu, who broke many precedents and gave much equality to the fairer sex.

8. Unmarried girls are resided in the highest location of the house.

31 Oct 2019

A Shade's Lament - 幽魂怨

1 花凋雁飛惡夢似 Like a bad dream, the flowers had withered and the swans flown,
2 昨夜東君春眠侍 Springtime of last night’s slumber, serving my Lord of the East Wind.
3 朗月復回人未必 The bright moon returns but perhaps not the person, 
4 此行莫非恩盡時 This journey of now is because of love no more?

5 千載萬刼年一渡 Aeons passing but only once a year crossed, 
6 鵲橋今宵絕無疑 Without doubt, tonight’s the night of the Magpie Bridge.
7 凡世三秋仙界日 In the mortal world of three autumns passed, but a day in the fairy realm,
8 稍候重見何難事 How difficult is it to see each other again in a few hours more?

1. The Eastern Bean Goose. Swan has a better imagery in western thought. They symbolize love because of their fidelity towards each other,
2. Chinese Zephyr, God of the flowers. A dream meeting with the lover.
3.  Implying, once dead will never become alive again, unlike the moon or immortals.
4. Indicating the journey of the dead from deduced from the first line.
5. Kalpa, the time between creation and recreation of the universe - in Hinduism – 4.32 billion years. In Buddhism, a regular one is 16.798 million years and a great one is 1.344 trillion.
6. The bridge formed by magpies for the stars of Altair (Cowherd) and Vega (Spinning Maid) for their reunion.
7. It is believed that a day in heaven is equivalent to three years on earth.
8. A Chinese hour is equivalent of two modern hours. Meeting four times in a heaven’s day is better than none for the author who is already in the land of the dead where there is no daylight to speak of.

The Vampire Waltz

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Anne of A Thousand Days - 千日皇后

This was inspired upon seeing the blue rug that costs $1000 not three years ago at a friend's party for a condo housewarming in near downtown San Diego.  And not yet three years complete, an outdoor rug.  I felt sorry for its plight.

往日千金毯 Once it was a thousand gold piece carpet, 
今刻門前藉 But of now, a door front rug.
可憐寵時速 Alas, the time of being favorite went too fast, 
兩年餘謫劇 Just shy of three years, another tale of banishment.

10 Dec 2016

05 Oct 2016

On Human Nature 聆音察理, 鍳貌辨色

This poem came about as I was practising how to write 觀 better for my Chinese calligraphy practice.  Still much practice is needed. Sigh....

1 聆音察理曉哀樂 Listen to the sounds - the joys and pains be known,
2 聞章辨色見人心 Smell the essays to determine it tones and colors of the heart be seen.
3 凡性莫測何難解 Unfathomable mortal behavior is not difficult to gauge,
4 上流下落低處深 Like water flows from high to low, where the lowest is the deepest. 

1. Taken from the Thousand Character Classic.

2. Also from the Thousand Character Classic and adaptation to an allusion from “Smelling Essays”, a story in “Strange Stories in a Chinese Studio”. Two friends went sightseeing in a mountain as they headed out for the Imperial Examinations. There they heard that a blind monk living there can tell how good an essay was written by smelling as it being burnt. Out of curiosity, they went to test the monk out. When the first essay was burning, the monk exclaimed that it was a piece of rapturous refinement and beauty that he had ever smelt. When the second one was burnt, the monk grew angry complaining why he was given such a sumptuous feast and now being served with a piece of crap. A year later, the one who wrote the foul essay became the Number One Scholar and since he was on his way back to his hometown, he decided to confront the monk for being a charlatan. The monk retorted that he was just commenting on the quality of essays but not on one’s fate! The moral of the story is that the blind can see better than those with eyes.

3. On the lines of, “it is easy to get rich in the stock market – just buy low and sell high.” The crux is just “when”.

4. 上流 also mean the “elite” – the superior man and 下落,“whereabouts”, “to mock”, “the base”, “the dregs”. The meaning of the last line is that even gentleman will fall from grace and beware that those with the basest character are “still water runs deep”.

It was one of those rare occasions that I had enough inspiration to compose two poems in a day!

Floating Mountain - 浮山

This one was inspired by a photo of Mt. Baldy which a friend took on a trip.

浮山雲海中 A floating mountain in midst of a sea of clouds, 
披戴翠綠松 Donning robes of green green pines.
留戀仙界閑 Left my heart in the leisure of the fairy realm, 
逃脱紅塵重 Escaped from the weight of the mundane world.

Monday, October 07, 2019