Last Poem of 2019

 

This is a profile photo in Facebook that popped up one day as someone whom I may know.  Of course, I don't.  However, the photo inspired me to pen the last poem of 2019.  The first line came to my mind was 一道浮橋至天涯. I had trouble with the rhyming scheme and unable to come up with a theme too. I copped out using an easier path - just change the line to 一道浮橋直上天. Still I could not continue for a few more days and the holidays were coming...

Then during my routine jog, I had a sudden break when the line was changed once more and words began to flow...

一道浮橋天外隔 Separated by a floating bridge is a realm beyond,
此世今時紅塵刻 This world, this hour, this moment in the mortal world.
樂盡凡界身不捨 Enjoying to the fullest, still begrudging to part,
到頭總是宴席客 Alas but in the end, only a dinner guest be.

The last line refers to “天下無不散宴席” There is no such thing as an ending banquet.

I thought I was done for the year.  How naive of me because afterwards, 一道浮橋直上天 began to gnaw at me, teasing and challenging me to end.  To cut the story short, I was haunted by it well into the month of the beginning year that I finally, during my brush writing practice that I had something to latch on.  

Taking a cue from the philosopher, Chuang Tzu's butterfly dream, instead of a butterfly being dreamt;  how about an immortal instead?  Though a rushed exercise in mentality, I have time to fine tune it later.  After all, this blog is about my journey in writing...

一道浮橋直上天 One floating bridge straight to heaven,
遙遠蓬萊難相見 The faraway Immortal Isles are hard to peer.
緣顧紅塵依不捨 All because I looked back -- begrudged to leave this mundane world.
恐疑仙界夢中眠 Yet a fearful suspicion that this fairy world is but my sleepy dream. 

I had a wonderful time with you though I am saddened... It seemed that it was not that long ago that I lounged in your springtime, penning another poem...

Success Changeth the Man - 獨佔鼇頭人心變

Every outsider sings praises of the beauty of the virtuous wife at each official function.  Truth be known that a garden flower is no match for the wild ones.  Men are hollow -- just look at the revelry spent throughout the night on the ship after the obligatory gestures are over.

The wife reminisces the poverty days of yore.  At least there was time spent in togetherness and making sure everything is to his comfort and to encourage that success is a distant sight whenever he is down. Suddenly that one day came… His hopes and hers were realized.  Though not the number one, life is at least on easy street.  How wrong she was to think of such ideals; now realizing that love had been traded for material comfort.

1每逢中秋捧月美 High praises for the lunar beauty when each Mid-Autumn comes around,

2銀光難比胭脂媚 Alas its silvery light is no match for the seductive rouge.

3空虛人心一瞭知 One look from above, hollowness of human hearts is known,

4酒樂歌歡船頭尾 In song and wine all over the boat.

5嬋娟殷勤書朗照 Solicitously she shines for his study,

6蟾宮籬隔遠萬里 The Palace just beyond the fence is of ten thousand miles away.

7廣寒探花桂枝折 To the Great Cold, Number Three scholar comes breaking the osmanthus brow,

8嫦娥寂寞何足奇 The Lunar Goddess still in loneliness – no surprise here.

1捧:to lift high

2 家花不比野花香 Garden flowers never more desirous as wild flowers – What you don’t possess is more desirous.

4樂:can be joy or music depending on its reading.  船頭尾:The prow and the rear of the boat.

5嬋娟: A lunar personification a girl. Depending on 書朗 or 朗照 is grouped,  it can be translated as, “… as he recites his passages”

6蟾宮:The Toad Palace, another term for the moon.  It is believed that this three-legged toad resides with the white rabbit, the osmanthus tree and the Goddess of the moon.

7探花: The Number Three Scholar. 狀元 and 榜眼, being the top two respectively.

8嫦娥: Chang-O, goddess of the moon

Monday, December 09, 2019

Unsatiated - 不足

This one was came from a line from https://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2019/12/untitled.html

無谷山何有 Where are the mountains when there are no valleys,
高處水流急 In high places, water flows in hurried swiftness..
人生不足求 Life's satiation never satisfied,

更滴錦繡浥 Will only bring greater tears to rich brocades.

On A Rainy Day 雨日上

Today, Wednesday, December 04, 2019 was a rainy day. It came with a vengeance and too soon, whimpered like a whisper of a departing lover.  So, when sunshine peeked out of the clouds languorously,  I went for my mundane daily jog.  The road was wet and the air, pure and fresh.  Alone I went, alone in thoughts when words came a calling…

雨過土濕獨步閑 The rains had passed, the ground is wet and in leisure I strolled,

湖岸靜思烟鎖橫 Deep in thoughts, enshrouded in dense fog by the lakes's banks.

船頭不聲豁然露 When in a sudden flash, the boat’s prow appeared,

冲破沆瀣再無煩 Slicing through the mists, no longer in vexation.

When the context is clear, Chinese is a pronoun dropping language.  Unless there is no other interpretation, pronouns can be added for fluency in the target language as in the first line.  However, in the last line, unless one knows exactly what the poet had in mind, adding pronouns won't be appropriate at all as it can imply the boat passengers are relieved to see the banks.

Old Flame - 舊情

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.

Thursday, October 31, 2019

Untitled - 無題

1山高溪流急 Mountains high; streams floweth in hurriedness,

2雲低雨滴閑 Clouds low; rain falling indolently.

3舟渡苦海深 Surging forth deeply into the ocean, is a little boat,

4遠聞鐘聲寒 Cold sounds of bells heard wafting from afar.

5人心不足息 Insatiable is the human heart,

6罪惡紅塵間 Filling the vulgar world in sin.

7長江東盡去 Eastwards the long river flows till its demise,

8水覆再難返 ’tis impossible for poured water runneth back [to its cup].

3 Chinese Buddhism views life as a sea of bitterness.

4 Bells here refer to those tolling in a Buddhist temple.   苦海無邊, 回頭是岸 The Sea of Bitterness has no end; Going back, will be the shore, a Buddhist saying about repentance.

6. 紅塵: Red dust, Buddhist term for the mundane world of mortals.

7. Referring to the Yangtze Kiang.

Sunday, November 24, 2019

West Lake Old Reminisces - 西湖舊憶

艇過銀波寒宮寂 The skiff had left the silvery waves and the cold Lunar Palace is alone,

無聲卷留攕月色 Leaving in silence, ripples in undulation shattering the moonlight.

水動光浮何人目 Floating light upon the moving waters for whom to see?

雷峰舊映有誰憶 Old reflections of the Thunder Peak Pagoda, none remembered.

Thunder Peak Pagoda is where Madame White Snake was imprisoned after she killed thousands of innocents when she cause the river to course up the mountain to flood the Temple of the Golden Mountain to free her imprisoned husband from the clutches of the self-righteous abbot.  

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

Thursday, November 14, 2019