Spring And Summer Days

While testing and experimenting on ChatGPT for tonal accordance to Classical style Chinese poetry, it suggested the following lines as a good example,

相逢約定在春風， 

花開芬芳滿園中.

I felt the lines were good and inspired me to do better...

1 相約已定在春風 

A promise made to meet when spring breezes are in the air,

2 蝶飛花香滿苑重

Fluttering butterflies and flowers once more re-scenting the garden.

3 小橋樓台荷影柳 

Small bridges and terraces reflecting with lotuses and willows,

4 鴛鴦難捨葉下夢

Adieu is difficult but under the leafy canopy, Mandarin Ducks dream in togetherness.

1 Implying that the couple is apart for whatever reason.

2 Butterflies are symbols of uneasy love, even to the point of being tragic. This is due to their current separation.  However, they are soon to reunite.

3 Bridges and terraces; willows and lotus are Chinese garden landscape essentials. These couplings imply that the lovers will be reunited in summer since lotus is that season's emblem.

4 Mandarin ducks are symbols of eternal love and fidelity. Sleep separates everyone but dreams unite.

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

A World Of Endless Noise

The first two lines came just as I was about to go to sleep but fell asleep as I sought after the next two lines. Woke up and was successful in my quest. Around 4am, once more wakened but could not return to my dreams. Might as well start my jog in the coolness of the darkness as I am sure the sun will be merciless in the day.  An extra stanza was added but took two solid days to polish the wording and imagery.

1 夜鳴鶯啼難入眠 Unable to sleep with the night song of a chirping mockingbird,
2 直至紅霞敲鐘前 Just before the moment when rosy clouds strike the temple bell.
3 寰宙漸漸甦醒覺 Stirring sounds of the cosmos and earth gradually felt,
4 流星依依殞落見 And yet reluctant falling stars still be seen.

5 郊野走獸飛禽地 The wilderness - a haven for roaming beasts and flying creatures,
6 城翫車馬遊龍天 City of heavy traffic in horse and buggy, like coiling dragons cruising in the sky.
7 豈求隔世歡招寧 How quietude from other realms be wonderfully sought?
8 何浴凡塵骸垢纒 And to wash off filthy entanglements of the body in the mundane world?

1 Other alternatives for 啼 were 叫 and 歌 but the choice made was I write it prettier with a brush and sounded more literary.

2 Implies the short duration of respite in silence before the noise of a different nature begins in line 3. In the original text, “temple” was not mentioned explicitly. It could also be the bell or drum tower to sound the morning audience with the emperor.

3 The original”大地” looked and sounded banal to me. 寰宙 suggests a grander scale of things. 

4 The original line, 銀河殘光依依見 conveys no movement. The new version also emphasizes the fleeting nature of silence as in the falling of a “star”.

5 The wilderness can still be a noisy place, filled with backland creatures noise.

6 Inspired by the 李煜’s 車如流水馬女如龍. 翫 is often used to mean artistic or cultural pursuit enjoyment while 玩 is a more general term for casual and straightforward term for enjoying activities such as playing games etc. Thus, 古翫 is the correct term used to mean “antique collecting” or “antiques” but is more cumbersome to write than 古玩. Nowadays, 翫 is considered as a variant of 玩.

7 歡招 came from the Thousand Classic’s 欣奏累遣, 慼謝歡招. Other characters influenced from the classic were 翫, 骸 and 垢.

8 Using another rhetorical question to answer the previous question is better in poetry than using a straightforward answer in my eyes. Creates more intrigue.

Sunday, July 16, 2023

One Summer Dawn

It’s summer and I had to change my jogging schedule to avoid the daylight heat. This morning, I started at 5am when it is still nighttime and cool… Halfway through, the sun was peeking out in a ball of fiery red. However, a few seconds later, when it was over the rooftops, it had turned yellow and all the rosy clouds were gone, replaced by white ones on the eastern front and dark colored ones in the other direction. This poem is the result of this experience.

1 曦暉力倦十里紅 Short is the distance of red in the languid glow of sunrise,
2 情無逐走百家夢 Without mercy chasing away dreams of countless sleepers.
3 霎顧朝霞藏甚處 A quick glance and wondered where do rosy clouds hide?
4 日窺屋簷劍光同 The sun peeped over rooftop eaves - a gleaming sword brandished.

5 夏熱慾嘗秋涼時 Amidst summer’s heat, desiring for a cool taste of autumn’s time,
6 冬寒憶望春暖逢 In winter's cold, yearning and hoping for spring’s meeting of warmth.
7 季別輪迴用何有 Of what use there be when seasons come and go?
8 如此人性盡莫窮 ‘tis the human nature to be insatiable and bottomless.

1 “Ten” is not numerically used but to represent a short distance because the sun had just “woken” up.

2 Literally, “Merciless is the dispelling of dreams in a hundred families”. Likewise, “a hundred” is just used to mean “many”. “Merciless” is used because of the sun’s selfishness. It won’t have others to dream on.

3. Time passes too quickly – for in a moment’s distraction of thinking how many dreams no longer exist, the beauty of the morning is gone. At the same time, asking rhetorically where they went. I opted for 甚 instead of as I dislike having repeated characters.

4 Implied the fleetness of beauty – a momentary distraction on pondering where the rosiness had gone, the answer is that the bright sun had it “slain”. Implied the distaste of the protagonist in seeing how hot the sun had become.

5, 6 The seasons are used to describe how mankind is not easily satisfied. Once obtained, no longer treasured but to yearn for something yet to be possessed.

7 輪迴 is the Wheel of Transmigration in Chinese mythology. Can be used either as a noun or a verb phrase.

8 This is because the human heart for desire is bottomless.

Friday, Jul 14, 2023

An Unending Dream

Ten years ago a marriage in San Diego became a reality.  Time had gone by too fast as  parties were wild and furious.  Was there moonlight in that night? It matters not for you are that same full moon.  You are the light of my life.  Perhaps this paltry poem sums up this unending dream...

1 朝飛暮巢共寢燕 Morning flight, evening nesting, swiftlets sleeping side by side,
2 十載一目夕陽前 Ten years in a blink of an eye, sunset years before our very eyes.
3 鶼鰈情深夢何了 How can dreams be at an end when love still runs deep?
4 餘世無憾每年年 Nary a regret year after year for the remainder of our lives.

1 Swallows are symbols or marital bliss. They mate for life.

3 鶼 is another term for 比翼鳥, a legendary bird with half a body. It needs another bird with the mirror image body in order to fly. The modern meaning of 鰈 is plaice, halibut or some other kind of flatfish. The original meaning is another type of fish, like the 鶼 needs another one in order to swim. Hence the term means profound love or a deep emotional bond.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

The Buck Moon Of 2023

The Buck Moon On 3rd July Photographed By Shintaro Tay in Singapore

Started with a line while doodling with the brush before my jog. It just a coincidence that the Buck moon is occurring tonight.  Had the structure completed when I was done.

1 低斜廣寒接高樓 Lowing lying is the lunar palace receiving the high towers,
2 莫見嫦娥使人愁 But not seeing the Goddess of the Moon makes everyone in frown.
3 尋遍華燈不知處 All over the bright lights are but nary a sign of her whereabouts,
4 孤照波水湖影柳 Upon the waves, shining alone by willow shadows in the lake.

1 The tall towers represent those wanting to alight into the lunar palace. Its name means “the Great Cold”. I used this term to symbolize the frigid and uncaring place.

2 It is assumed that the seekers had successfully entered the moon. The goddess symbolizes the soul of the place. They may have the body and not the heart.

3 The most logical search are bright places but lanterns can be brighter on closer up and bedazzle the senses of any seeker. Hence the wrong place to start. Here the lanterns refer to those of a brothel.

4 Far from the Madding Crowd is the most logical choice. This poem is reminiscent of 辛棄疾’s 青玉案.

東風夜放花千樹, 更吹落, 星如雨.
寶馬雕車香滿路, 鳳簫聲動, 玉壺光轉, 一夜魚龍舞.

蛾兒雪柳黃金縷, 笑語盈盈暗香去.
眾里尋他千百度, 驀然回首, 那人卻在, 燈火闌珊處.

Monday, July 3, 2023

Paradise Found?

This was inspired upon hearing some cawing crows as I jogged around the neighborhood.

1 晨早輕步無人語 Happily in stroll one early morning with no human voice heard,
2 遠別車市世外遇 Bidding farewell to a far off city of traffic, a new world found.
3 百鳥林唱暗藏谷 A hidden forested valley where a hundred forest birds sing,
4 千字文背朗讀處 Perfect is the place to recite out aloud the Thousand Character Classic.

1 Literally, “light footed”. The human voice of others represent the mundane clutter of the world.

2 literally, “a city of cars/chariots”.

3 Does not mean one hundred literally but many. Just trying to maintain the structure of parallelism with the first four character of the last two lines. Twittering birds are thought to be the intellect.

4 I had memorized the Thousand Character Classic to practise my brush handwriting.

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

Saturday, July 1, 2023

For Love Of Lychees

While a quick doodle before my daily jog but during the run, the theme was changed drastically to a better one...

1晚霞漸臨殘影斜 Red colored evening clouds slowly approacheth, long shadows a slant,
2 紫微冷照染飛騎 And drenched is the fast dispatch in the cold light of the Emperor Star.
3 西北直向八百里 Lying straight to the northwest is the distance of eight hundred miles,
4 長安日破恐莫赦 And if dawn breaks over the city of Eternal Peace, no pardon be granted.

5 綺回初逢華清池 Returning to memories of the first meeting at the Pool of Flower Purity,
6 曾似誓約七夕夜 As if once upon a time an oath on a certain Night of Seventh pledged.
7 上陽朝無妃子笑 No more morning lychees in the Palace of the Supreme Sun,
8 夢境還舊散不舍 And yet scenes of old dreams are reluctant to dissipate.

1 With the subsequent lines in the poem, this actually paints the gradual decay of the Tang Empire.

2 The north star appears stationary while other stars revolve around it and therefore represents the throne. The line literally says, “the Polaris is shining coldly, tainting the fast dispatch in its light”.

3 Putting together the military dispatch and the 800 mile journey from the south east often associates the delivery of lychees for Yang Guifei’s breakfast.

4 The befuddled emperor won’t not be happy when Yang Guifei throws a fit because of her missing favorite fruit on the breakfast table.

5 The Pool of Flower Purity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaqing_Pool

6. This alludes to a story that on one Seventh Night when they made an oath that they will never leave each other. However, a few years later, he was forced to have her to commit suicide as his retaining army refused to go on further to escape from the An Lu Shan rebellion as long as she was alive.

7 This is where the abdicated emperor lived. He did not live too long afterwards. 妃子笑, the “imperial concubine smiles” is also a name of a variety of lychee that Yang Guifei favored most. Thus, the line also refers to her death.

Friday, June 30, 2023