So, I felt like I could use a bit of a break from the old, old, old, poetry that I usually post.  Perhaps it's because I had to read two separate very propaganda-ish Li Bai articles for class.  What's the dark side of Li Bai?  Who knows?  Also, though he wrote in Chinese and did grow up in China, he was not born there and his family was probably "Turkic," Uighur maybe.  But you never hear about that in any of these "Li Bai was a Great Chinese Poet" articles.

Anyway, I fiddled around on the 'net for a bit before I found this poem.  I like it because first of all, the Chinese is really easy to understand, and the meaning is not too obscure.    I admit that I read an English translation first, but I think "frame" is the only word I wouldn't have understood.  I saw other poems by this guy that were very long and probably more complicated, so maybe I'll take a shot at those another time.

風景　 BY 呂德安

Scenery by Lv De'an

經過多年的失望,
我終於搬走了窗口,
但仔細一想, 事實上
搬走的只是它的框架.

After many years of disappointment,
I finally moved the window,
But on thinking it over carefully, actually
what I moved was just its frame.

黑洞洞的, 世界仍在原處,
可我畢竟已經離開,
在它的遠方行走,
背負它的窗子框架.

A black ravine, the world still where it was,
But after all I've already left,
Walking in a faraway land,
Carrying on my back the window frame.

天邊飛過相似的候鳥,
想像當年的我也一樣,
重複地走過這個或那個地方,
背負的是自己的窗子框架.

The migratory birds that flew across the sky
Seem like the way I am this year,
Repeatedly walking here and there,
Carrying my own window frame.

I couldn't find the other poem I was remembering, and am beginning to wonder if I just made the whole thing up.  I guess that dear Mrs. Soebbing, my former Psychology teacher, destroyed my ability to trust my own memory.  Be that as it may, I was thinking that I seem to have written about all of the seasons except summer.  It is definitely summer down here, and has been for months now, and I know in Taiwan it will be extremely hot.  So I chose this little poem.

Also, about the translation-- the whole pronoun thing was tough, so I chose not to put any in and just make the translation super-literal.  Anyone who wants a more westernized one can surely find it on the web.

And another thing, if anyone wants links to audio files of these poems, I have them for most of the poems.  There's a great librivox Tang poems project going on, so lots of free recordings are out there in Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Hokkien, etc.


夏日南亭懷辛大

孟浩然

山光忽西落
池月漸東上
散髮乘夜涼
開軒臥閑敞
荷風送香氣
竹露滴請響
欲取鳴琴彈
恨無知音賞
感此懷故人
中宵勞夢想

Summer Day, South Pavilion, Thinking of Xin

Meng Haoren

Mountain light suddenly west falls
Pond moon slowly east rises
Let down hair in the night's coolness
Open covers, lie in peace
Lotus wind bringing fragrance
Bamboo dew pure drops of sound
Longing to fetch a lute and play,
Hating that none would know the sound's beauty
Thinking this, remembering an old friend
In the middle of the night, troubling dreams

I don't think I've posted anything by Zhang Jiuling, and this poem struck me as beautiful and fairly easy to understand.  I initially interpreted the last part as a wish for dreams because that's what the English translation indicated, though I finally figured out that 期 can mean "to hope," not just a period of time, which is the meaning I was familiar with.  My friend Ivana recently pointed out to me that there are tons of explanations of all of these poems online.  I thought those would be a pain to read since they're in Chinese, but sometimes it might be easier to understand a long-winded explanation than it would be to understand a short poem.  I hope that wouldn't apply to this poem.

Gazing at the Moon, Remembering Distance

Zhang Jiuling

The moonlit sea
now the border of heaven,
lovers complaining of distant night
suddenly, in the evening, rise and think of each other--
blow out the candle, the light is full
take off the coat, the dew is exciting
unable to endure, present a full hand
return to lie down, hoping for beautiful dreams

望月懷遠

張九齡

海上生明月
天涯共此時
情人怨遙夜
竟夕起相思
滅燭憐光滿
披衣覺露滋
不堪盈手贈
還寢夢佳期