Moon Over Ruins - 月夜荒城

This was inspired by the first few kanji from the lyrics of this Japanese classical piece of music, 荒城の月, Koujo no Tsuki, 春高樓の花の宴. The song describes the moon watching over the earthly happenings in the meandering of time. I did not know all these until after the idea of the poem was completed. I became fascinated to know more and I am glad I did.

1曾經春夜花酒宴 Once upon a spring night of a banquet under the flowers,
2荒城無言對月前 Now but a wall of ruins looking at the moon in silence.
3樓高野香寂寞風 Towers still tall - engulfed in the fragrance of the wild and the forlorn wind,
4銀影仍掃千載眠 Shadows from the silvery light still sweep this thousand-year slumber.

1 In the original Japanese, the flowers refer to the cherry blossoms.

2 Originally 城means the inner walls of the city as opposed to 郭, the outer city walls. In Japanese, it means castle.

4 Shadows cannot be in another color except black!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm5N0taN7Fw...
https://lyricstranslate.com/.../kojo-no-tsuki-moon-over...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt2Im7z77TA

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Reminiscing

It had been a long time since I had posted last.  I have been very busy as I am still working on the "Wanderings of the Lute", 琵琶行, a Po Chu-i's 616 character long poem. In the meantime, an updated poem from 2019...

I was trying to find the meaning of 垣 as in 屬耳垣牆 from the Thousand Character Classic. In the MGDB dictionary, I saw 垣衣… This led to 夕陽西偏垣衣翠.

I was stuck for quite awhile. I tried making it into a couplet.  No help from the couplet generator. Then in my daily jog,  銀月東起霓裳聚 came up.  With 霓裳, my fuzzy idea changed direction and solidified.

1紫霞斜映垣衣翠 Purple evening clouds and slanted green reflected from the moss-clothed wall
2 疏影橫舞霓裳隨 Sporadic shadows dancing with the Rainbow Skirt.
3 珠箔動搖竟太真 And when the bejeweled drapes swayed, it’s her!
4 急前鴻驚暗香去 In my haste, my daunted swan left, nary any scent of hers lingered.

5 長生誓約舊日夢 The promise made in the Palace of Eternal Life is but a dream of long ago,
6 上陽寂寥老人醉 And in the loneliness in the Palace of Supreme Brightness, an old man in stupor.
7 難信一朝重相見 Hard to believe that one day, we shall meet once more…
8 金風留恨玉露淚 Regrets left with the Golden Wind, jade dew tears upon the leaves.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

1 A reference to 綠腰, a courtly dance in which female performers are dressed in green, baring their mid-drifts, reminiscent of Indian classical dances.

2. 霓裳羽衣曲 - The Song of the Feathered Dress and Rainbow Skirt is a melody purported created by the Emperor Hsuan Tsung from a dream he heard in the Lunar Palace, and choreographed by Yang Guifei, his imperial concubine.

3. This is a play on words – 太真, “too real”. Here it refers to the Taoist title of Yang Guifei meaning “Supreme Verity”. There was a story that a Taoist priest flew to the Moon on the Emperor’s behalf to meet her many years after her forced suicide. At the end of the meeting, she broke a jade hairpin in half and gave one half to him to be brought back to the Emperor. To ensure that it is indeed from her, she let the priest know of a secret vow made in the Hall of Eternal Life on one Seventh Night. A very similar story is that of Emperor Han Wu and his favorite, 李夫人. In the Han Dynasty, 夫人 is a rank equivalent to “Imperial Concubine”, second only to the Empress. When she fell ill, she refused to see the Emperor. Hiding under the covers whenever he came. A thousand gold pieces was offered to her and gave high positions to her brothers if he could see her. No entreaty could sway her. As the enraged Emperor left, her family became fearful and pled with her. They were admonished instead for their stupidity. The Emperor loves her only because of her beauty and nothing else. By not letting him see her in her present condition, she will always be remembered in glory and each time, upon remembering her, the family will rise to greater honors. Indeed, it was the case. Eventually, a Taoist priest was asked to conjure her spirit. Under the cover of dimly lit candles and alcohol, the Emperor saw a glimpse of her behind the heavy curtains. She disappeared as he approached. The reason being the august aura of the Emperor was too much for her spirit to bear. His later reign was often besotted and beguiled by charlatans in search for immortality.

4. The Eastern Bean Goose. However, in English, the goose has no beauty to speak of.

5. A promise made on the Seventh Night (Chinese Valentine) between the emperor and his beloved to be forever in togetherness. However, he broke his promise when his life was threatened as they fled from the capital when the An Lushan rebellion came. The escorting soldiers refused to move forward when they reached the Mawei Slope until her life was forfeited as she was blamed as the root cause of the ensuing chaos.

6. When the capital was retaken, the Emperor abdicated and became the Emperor Emeritus (太上皇) and moved into the Palace of Supreme Brightness.

8. The Golden Wind is a poetic term for “autumn” and the dew on the leaves is known as “Jade Dew”.

A Pot of Tea

This picture of a modern fake Ch'ing Dynasty ceramic style was posted by Fred Liu to the Chinese Poetry Group in Facebook…  He wrote a poem and he translated into English.  I was inspired more by the picture than his poem.

壶心

那些柔美的线条 Those charming curves
神秘的图案         Enticing patterns
和明媚的颜色     And pleasing colors
怎将内心的况味 How can they speak
稍稍诉说？        For their contents


©️德江 Fred Liu
Photo from the web.

This was my inspiration… To my first reaction was how a modern piece can speak of past happenings, especially when private details that were not witnessed first hand.  However, I changed the tone and theme to one that has more than one interpretation.

黃底花彩紅, Yellow background with flowers of red,
近代仿乾隆, New imitation of the Chien Lung period.
琺瑯一壺茶, A famille rose pot of tea,
難盡清宮夢. For Ch’ing Palace dreams still lingering on…

Thursday, August 6, 2020

A Covid 19 Poem

This was inspired while I was jogging.  Why not a poem about the current affairs of the world...

春色燦爛何須接 Why the need to receive Spring in all its splendor?
無奈隔絕世外刼 When alas in isolation from the ravages of the outside world.
冠年十九常寂寞 At nineteen before the cap year, often lonely,
志向芳徑迷踪蝶 All goals towards the perfumery path, are traces of lost butterflies. 

The translation of the coronavirus in Chinese is 冠狀 (cap/hat shape) and is encoded into the poem.  "Cap ceremony" (冠禮) is when males are entitled to wear a cap to signify their adulthood upon attaining the age of twenty (19 in western calendar reckoning).  In Japan, it is known as "Genpuku" (元服). Here in the poem, doubles to mean the year of the virus.  

Monday, August 3, 2020

Autumn Thoughts By The Dresser - Variation II

A newer version...  The second and third stanzas were inspired at later dates.

https://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2020/07/autumn-thoughts-by-dresser.html

01黄昏斜照妝台塵 The evening light slanting upon the dresser’s dust,
02默語對望鑒中人 And silent words staring into the bronze mirror’s person.
03不意簪手空處摁 Unwittingly, pressing at the emptiness where the hairpin once was,
04何去步搖欲重問 ”Where To? ”, the danglers needing to ask once more.

05浮光蹉跎醉夜星 The flickering rays, squandering away into the starry night of the drunkard,
06掠影盜取春夢辰 And passing shadows, robbing the hours from a bygone spring dream.
07長門寂寞淚滴常 In the Long Gate Palace loneliness and dripping tears are the norms,
08未央歌舞酒迎新 And at the Zenith-Not-Reached Palace, wine and song to welcome the newly favoured.

09嬌寵慣養卅載餘 For just over thirty years a pampered life of every want,
10無情今落廿年辛 And now twenty years of cold and neglect.
11若知勿願十里紅 If known, unwillingly to journey that ten miles of red,
12來世莫要九五生 In the next life, nary an imperial life I want. 

1.The dying rays of the sun.

2. Imagining a younger self in the mirror.

3. The direct translation is “Unwittingly, the hairpin hand is pressing into emptiness”.

4. Swaying hair ornaments used by Chinese women to accentuate their movements and in turn make the danglers sway delicately like willow branches in the breeze. Another way of interpretation is “Once more the need to ask: Where did the danglers go?”. This is a poignant question as there is no place to go in this golden cage prison.

5-6. The first two characters from these lines form the idiom, “浮光掠影” to mean “superficial”, “cursory” or “grasping at straws”.

7.Name of a Han Dynasty Palace. It was situated outside the imperial palace. It was given to the Emperor Han Wu Ti by his aunt to bribe him for looking the other way from her scandals. She was instrumental in clearing his way to the throne. Later, it became the “cold palace” where the no longer favoured reside. The most famous occupant was the Emperor’s first empress, the daughter of the said aunt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Jiao

8.The main palace where the emperor resides. Not-yet-reached-the zenith is an important concept during the Han Dynasty. It means forever flourishing since once the zenith is reached, the next step is “descending to decay”. This line refers to the Emperor’s second Empress, Wei Zifu, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_Zifu. The direct translation of the line is “At the Weiyang Palace, song, dance and wine to welcome the new”

9. The commoner expression is 嬌生慣養 literally, “daintily born, reared up in every whim” but I chose 寵 “to favour” to emphasize 嬌, the name of the deposed empress. She enjoyed 31 years of luxury until she was deposed.

10. For twenty years she lived in the golden gilded cage, a virtual prisoner until her death.

11. When she was told of the marriage to Han Wu Ti, she would rather die than to marry him. In the end, she exacted an exorbitant price that she thought even the imperial household would feel the pinch. On her wedding route to the palace, continuous red silk was to be laid and both sides similarly to shield her from the public. However, the scheming mothers would not let such a trifle matter to thwart their plans. Of course, this ten miles is a poetic exaggeration. Even so, for a single mile, the cost is still exorbitant.

12. The exact translation is “nine-five life”. Odd numbers belong the Yang (maleness) while even numbers are Yin members. The “nine-five” is short for 九五之尊, “the most honoured 9 and 5”. In a 3 X 3 square, 9 is the highest odd digit while 5 occupies the central position. Hence, these positions are monopolized by the emperor and by extension to mean “imperial”.

Friday, July 19, 2020

The Winters of My Heart - 冬心

This Chinese girl, Angela in the Sino-English WeChat group wrote this poem in Chinese. The English translation is mine.

白色的冬天是一個迷惑     The white of winter is an enthralling enigma
濃霧迷住了路途                Thickly bewitching the road
迷途蒙蔽了年輕人的心扉 Hoodwinking the hearts of the young
你是寒冬里的一把火        You are a beacon of fire in the harshness of winter
照亮了前方迷途的路        Brightening far onto this enshrouded path
溫暖了我冰冷的心窩        Warming the iciness in the cockles of my heart

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

From her imagery, this is my version...

隆冬遍白迷津渡 In the dead of winter, a stretch of white crossing into a ford of perplexity,
深鎖前程無去路 Engulfing the future of no road to go.
一把君火日高照 You are a torch of fire, like the sun shining overhead,
暖破內心冰冷霧 Warming and dispersing the iciness of the fog within my heart.

Thursday, July 16, 2020

妝台秋思 - Autumn Thoughts By the Dresser

  
This is inspired by the flute solo of this piece of music. Music starts at 1:48.

1金風花落庭後空 Drifting blossoms in the golden wind and emptiness in yonder of the courtyard,
2玉露竹滴鑒中夢 Jade dew dripping from bamboo leaves but a dream in the bronze mirror.
3豈無春思妝台瞥 How can one’s memories of springtime not evoke upon the dresser peered?
4楓林唯看四周紅 Just look Into the maple forest where red is all over.

5雪絲雲配又一見 Snowy strands accessorize the clouds of my head once more revealed,
6銀柳塵許再莫逢 Silver willowy danglers betrothed to dust, no longer met.
7日月流光歲催年 The flowing light of the sun and moon urges the onward crippling years,
8昨夜今刻何相同 Last night and of this moment – how can they be the same?

1.Golden Wind – Autumn

2.Jade Dew – dew formed during the cold autumn nights. Bamboos are evergreen.

3.Bygone youth.

4.Red is synonymous with youth but in this case -- dying maple leaves.

5.Grey strands of grey as opposed to 青絲 women’s silky black hair. 雲 here is short for 雲鬢 voluminous front temple hair coiffured like clouds.

6. Silver hair ornament that sways like the willow in the breeze with the movements of the wearer to catch the eye of the opposite sex. Crudely put, a bait dangler. Inspired from the line “蛾兒雪柳黄金鏤”

7. Flowing light – passage of time.

8. Last night – denoting the past that went by so swiftly. This lament could have been imagined what the future beholds. To western readers, it may be construed that the poem’s character is of vanity. However, in the imperial harem, it could mean leading a life of solitude as youth is robbed by time. Vying for imperial favors is a life and death enterprise for these women.

Monday, July 13, 2020