Frontier Lament

萬里江水東流長 Waters from the Ten-Thousand Mile River flow eternally east,
千雲山雪北飛霜 Frost from the Thousand Cloud Mountains flies into the north.
路遙家香胡味重 The long road to home sweet home reeks of barbaric smells,
關外落雁塞外陽 Even the descending ansers and the sun beyond the frontier fortress look foreign.

In the old days, ansers were used to send messages, like using homing pigeons.

Saturday, January 23, 2021

Seeking Immortality?

Although this poem was inspired the gorgeous sunset of the Islands, what started off was something very mundane and contrite.  By the I got back from the stroll, as if my mind was on hashish and imbuing an opiate dream during this pandemic restriction...  Words just came flowing out of the brush while listening to the 葬心 (Buried Heart) instrumental over and over again... Even now, as I am posting it on this blog, I am still clueless what I had written then. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzMHv0r9dAY

陣陣無限向山尋 Gust after gust, endlessly towards the mountain sought, 

層層不絕對岸吟 Rank after rank, unceasingly to the shore in sighs. 

海道陽斜海道浮 A sea lane of the sun aslant, a sea lane afloat, 
一波浪銀一波沉 One wave crested, another sunk. 

蓬萊遠近將鎖恨 The length and breadth of paradise will soon be enshrouded in regret 

紅塵高低未銷淫 Rights or wrongs of this mortal world, not yet fully indulged. 
借問長短人世何 To ask whether the world of living be long or short? 
還答多少苦海深 The answer lies in how many oceans of bitterness be shallow or deep. 

Originally, it was just about the wind blowing at the mountains on the island and waves crashing onto its shore...  

The character for an immortal is a man beside a mountain - 仙.  

So perhaps, the person seeking immortality is like the waves forever touching the foot the Blessed Isles, but never set foot upon the place because of worldly ties still tethered?

遠近, 高低, 長短 and 多少 have multiple meanings and thus subject to many creative interpretations and translations. This translation is only just one of them. 

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Temptations

Ever since I stopped playing Rise of Kingdoms, on the last day of 2020, my literary output had increased.  I just need to have new material to practise my calligraphy during this pandemic boredom...  At least now, I have something productive to show till the end of the internet!

1 水滴芳盡巷花靜 Water a dripping, fragrance gone, quiet are the flowers of the lane,
2 一幕濛朧心鎖寧 A canopy of haziness but my heart stands vigilant with guarded tranquility.
3 隔壁忽撲酒香濃 When suddenly, from the walls a bouquet of heavy wine comes pouncing by,
4 絲竹歌舞何夜停 Music of song and dance – but which night would they be silent? 

5 春時柳月觸夢冷 The springtime crescent moon turning my dreams into bitterness,
6 雨後東風掃心清 But the after rain East wind swept my heart pure.
7 波平銀湖紅塵幻 The silvery lake in rippling calm is merely an illusion of the mortal world,
8 土濕石滑赴空明 The ground is wet and the stones slippery as I meet the brightness in the sky.

1 花巷, the flowery lane – euphemism for the street where brothel houses stand. Thus 巷花, flower of the lane is a courtesan. The first line describes a rainy night and all quiet on the western front.

2 The mists are a metaphor of things that cloud one’s judgement. In Tang times, entertainment in the form of drinking, dancing and music are done before midnight. Courtesans will take their leave at the break of dawn from the arms of their paramours.

3 Alas, it was not meant to be, as another form of sensuality comes affronting.

4 Literally, strings and reeds. The sensuality of the world never stops assaulting our senses.

5 Literally, willow-leaf shaped moon made me remember my broken dreams.

7 Literally, red dust – Buddhist term for the mortal world. The calmness of the lake is alluding to “still water runs deep”.

8 This is done on purpose and let the reader decide what空明 means. 空 means sky, heaven, emptiness or vacuity. 明 means bright, clear, understanding, or enlightenment. Thus, it can mean the moon itself (since we know it was night and not in the day) or “he who understands vacuity”, a name for a Buddhist monk. Since all the lines in the second verse has something to do with nature, I chose the interpretation of “moon/moonlight reflected on a watery surface”. Temptations in the world and things are not what they seem to be in order to prevent one from reaching enlightenment. Truth is the brightness of the moon piercing through darkness. Even when it wanes, it does so ever slowly and openly and surprises no one. Truth cannot be destroyed, though it may be hidden – the duality principle of Ying and Yang.

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

A Winter's Doodle

One Winter's Evening and nothing else to do during a self-imposed pandemic imprisonment...

1 斜陽力倦掃花黄 Flowers in yellow swept by the tired rays of the setting sun,
2 淡月情虛映菊寒 Cold looking chrysanthemums reflecting in the nonchalant moonlight.
3 鶯去寂寞空庭語 Gone is the mockingbird. Loneliness is the language of the courtyard,
4 莫愁無歡夢裡藏 Fret not that there is no joy. Just look for them hidden in dreams.

1 Actually, the flowers themselves are yellow and not made to look like so by the sunlight. This is not known until we find out in the second line that the flowers are chrysanthemums.

2 淡月情虛 translated literally as “pale moon empty feelings”

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

龍鼔灘晚霞餘暉 - Sunset At Dragon Drums Beach

My friend, Dominic posted this photo on FB and it inspired me to write this poem. The second photo, though gorgeous is not as dramatic as the first. 

1餘暉霞暗蓬萊嵿 The remaining red clouds of sunset are darkening the mountain tops of Paradise, 

2枯枝前頭寒冬時 It’s the time when boughs of winter had withered in the cold.
3何意獨步龍鼓灘 Of what reason had made thee walk alone on Dragon Drums Beach?
4牽引君手再莫辭 Refuse me not again to take thy hand and lead thee away.

5緣何自明默相對 Why is it too self-evident that we face each other in silence?
6春花秋人兩岸異 Difference is in the riverbanks of spring blooms and the autumnal man.
7此世來生未了情 In this life or the next, this love nary a blossom be.
8夢渡鵲橋非瑤池 Crossing the Magpie Bridge in dreams is no Jasper Pool dipping.

1 One of the three Blessed Isles in the Eastern Ocean, the abode of immortals

3 The name of the beach in Hong Kong where this photo was taken. It was part of the caption on his posting in Facebook.

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

5 緣 as a noun mean “the reason” and as a verb, “why”.

6-7 Separated by the river of time, the banks (worlds) in their respective periods are different. Even in reincarnation, there is a lag time difference in which they are reborn - their ages will forever be separated by this chasm.

8 A bridge formed by magpies on the seventh night of seventh lunar month so that the lovers of the cowherd and the celestial spinning maid can cross for their yearly reunion. The Jasper Pool is not a mere decorative addition in the realm of the Queen Mother of the West. It serves a purpose whereby human beings, demons etc. are transformed into fairy beings. 脱胎換骨 – “shed the embryo and change the bones” cleanses one’s former desires and filth of the mortal world before entering the world of immortals – A Chinese version of the fountain of youth.

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Another Weltschmerz

A longer ago Weltschmerz...

https://jeffinous.blogspot.com/2018/10/weltschmerz.html

莫道青山總是翠 Speak not of green mountains forever be verdant,
有朝火來燒盡去 For one day, fire will burn all that there is.
東風力倦難重復 The East wind in languish to regain what was lost,
何似雨後野花蕊 Unlike the vigor of wild flowers after the rain.

Friday, January 15, 2021

Coming of the Year of the Metal Ox - 2021

Just a mental exercise for the coming of the Chinese New Year, 2021.

鼠離瘟疫去 The Rat is leaving and pandemic begone!
牛來健康到 Let there be health with the approaching Ox!
春滿人間富 Springtime fills the mortal world with happiness.
出入平安路 A road of peaceful incomings and outgoings ahead.

Wednesday, January 13, 2021