Now I want to dedicate a poem from Su Shi, honored as "Gay Genius" to my sponsor @raj808 of Blockchain Poet community. As you all know, it has been nearly half a month since he posted his last blog on Hive. I have to admit that I feel at a loss and he has been on my mind recently because only God knows how I begin to miss reading his daily Hive blogs full of humor/passion and interacting with him directly through comment section. Does anyone know about his whereabouts？Is he ill or has he really gone to Bulgaria on his paid vacation, being befriended by black bears in the mountains？
Today I just run across a video where the teacher is explaining this poem which strikes a chord with me all of sudden. Without further ado, let's enjoy it.
More exactly, it should be called a piece of Ci. Maybe you would ask me what Ci is. Ci/词 is a kind of ancient Chinese poem which is also the lyrics for singing to the special tune popular mainly in Song dynasty. There is an idiom in China: 唐诗宋词 which means poem prevailed in Tang dynasty and Ci in Song dynasty.
《蝶恋花·花褪残红》
苏轼
花褪残红青杏小。(xi/ao)
燕子飞时，
绿水人家绕。 (r/ao)
枝上柳绵吹又少，(sh/ao)
天涯何处无芳草！(c/ao)
墙里秋千墙外道。(d/ao)
墙外行人，
墙里佳人笑。 (xi/ao)
笑渐不闻声渐悄，(qi/ao)
多情却被无情恼。(n/ao)
Here is its English version from the famous translator Xu Yuanchong.
Butterflies in Love with Flowers
Su Shi
Red flowers fade, green apricots appear still small,
When swallows pass
Over blue water that surrounds the garden wall.
Most willow catkins have been blown away, alas!
But there is no place where grows no sweet grass.
Without the wall there is a path, within a swing.
A passer-by
Hears a fair maiden's laughter in the garden ring.
The ringing laughter fades to silence by and by;
For the enchantress the enchanted can only sigh.
Below is the second English versions of it:
Butterflies Lingering over Flowers
By Su Shi
(Translator: Zhao Yanchun)
As blooms fade green apricots appear on the boughs,
While the swallow fly,
The green water meanders about the house.
More catkins drift off the withies as the wind blows;
There is nowhere on earth but luxuriant grass grows.
Within the wall there’s a swing, without, a high way.
Without walkers hie;
Within a fair lady laughs like a fay.
Her charming laughter tapers into nothingness;
The enchanted is annoyed by the enchantress.
The third version is:
Waning Flowers
Su Shi
(Translator: Unknown)
Waning flowers linger in waning red, green apricots still small.
Swallows darting over,
A green stream encircles a yard wall.
In the wind, catkins on the willow twigs are turning thin,
Here and there, fragrant grass will burgeon in no time at all.
A walking path runs outside the walls, within the walls swings a swing.
A passerby outside,
Hears the laughter from the beauty inside.
But soon the laughter is gone and everything quiets down,
The feelings, once attached, are annoyingly detached now.
You can compare them by yourself and decide which your favorite is. For my part, I love the third version most, especially this classical sentence多情却被无情恼 being translated into "The feelings, once attached, are annoyingly detached now" which is spot-on more than 2 other versions. In fact, if we translate this sentence word by word, it should be the amorous/romantic people are just hurt by the ruthless ones.
Oh, am I just like that enchanted person in the poem who feels a little vexed, due to failing to continue to enjoy the enchantress' ringing laughter？ How I wish he would come back to Hive as soon as possible! The thought of losing the privilege of reading his writings and interacting with him is unacceptable for me. Oh, God, I am really enchanted by his exquisite haiku/poem/blog with passion, philosophy, kindness, relaxation, humor, warmth and boldness.
"Let sea-discovers to new worlds have gone;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown;
Let us possess one world..."
Just as one of my comments on his blogs said, "the truth is I am also a nature/travelling enthusiast like you. Pitifully I have no chance to see the outside world in reality, so living vicariously through your writings becomes my biggest pleasure."
By following his blogs, it seems that I have just entered a world of abundance and experienced a lot of strange places and exotic sceneries, such as swimming with whale shark near to Isla Mujeres, Maxico.
With that being said, let me not forget the main goal of my writing this blog.
At the begining, I have mentioned that Su Shi was regarded as "Gay Genius", a dashing gentleman in high spirit. However, his real life was just the opposite, so someone even claims that he is the Chinese Vincent van Gogh. No doubt he had a happy youth, sailing through the imperial exam and gaining his official rank successfully in a young age. Whereas he kept on being banished from the court to the different remote places in the latter part of his life, including being thrown into prison and nearly being put to death. Ridiculously it was all due to his poetry. It is said that this poem was also mistaken for an erotic poem by some scholar-officials in ancient China. Fortunately he had a younger brother who was just his best friend like Vincent van Gogh. His brother Su Zhe who was also a famous literator in Song Dynasty tried his best to take care of our Great Poet who seemed to always get into trouble.
This poem should be written by Su Shi when he was young. It portrayed a charming spring-summer landscape, running over with the sence of optimism and fancy-free youth. In the top half part, the author noticed the gratifing change of the nature: while the pink flowers fade, the little lovely fruits--green apricots are just supposed to come out. So no need to feel regretted for the fallen willow catkins (willow catkin is a classical wording in ancient Chinese poetry)! We should know that everywhere is full of green grass, vibrant and brimming with life!
The bottom half sees that the passerby outside the wall is infected by the cheerful and silvery laughter of a young lady in the garden, and his heavy mood lightens up accordingly. However, he needs to hurry up with his jouney. The further he walks, the less laughter he can hear into silence. He becomes so lost in a deep reverie that he feels he is just like a self-sentimental fool, which is usually the universal feature of young people.
From this poem we just realize that the poet can't help singing high praise of the flying youth ardently and boldly!
According to the record, Su Shi once required his concubine named Wang Zhaoyun to sing this poem when he lived in exile in Huizhou(a place near to the present Hong Kong and Guangzhou--the capital of Guang Dong province) in his old age. Yeah, it is originally a piece of Ci specially for singing. But on opening her month to sing it, she just broke into tears. What a sharp contrast--the past joyness and unconstraint and the present desolation! How the beautiful youth passed and flied in a flash! Soon later his only and last beloved wife/concubine just died of the miasma while washing clothes near the river of a primitive forest.
Su Shi had 3 wives altogether in his life. After the first wife died, he married the second one and had a young girl who was once one of his family's servents as his concubine. After the second wife died, his concubine was like his loyal wife who would like to company him no matter how hard the living situation was. From then on till his death, the poet never listened to this poem. And there is still the historic site of Chaoyun graveyard being memorialized in Huizhou city now.
I was indeed in Bulgaria but had to come home early.
Beautiful poetry @kaixin
I particularly liked these lines as they inspired memories of catkins floating over the Moores in Lancashire where my friend lived when I was a child. I used to visit there in the summer and we'd see great clouds of fluff riding the breeze from the dandelion catkins shedding their seeds :)
When swallows passOver blue water that surrounds the garden wall.Most willow catkins have been blown awayYou're right, that is exactly the feeling I got from the poem :)
So glad to know you are in Bulgaria now! Have a good time!
Yeah, such a spring scenery is very familiar to me when willow catkins are flying in the air. They look so ethereal like a dream. Willow catkin is a classical wording in ancient Chinese poetry and we can often find it in other poems. In my hometown there are also dandelions which I always love, but it seems that they haven't been chosen by poets luckily, failing to walk into the ancient Chinese poems. Whereas I have noticed that there are quite a few English poems on dandelion.
Nobody knows what time Su Shi wrote this poem due to lack of the historical records. But the Chinese expert in that video judges that it must be written in his young age since it is a poem full of joy and youth. Otherwise his concubine couldn't shed tears when she sang it. The only reason is that it is an old song which reminded her of her young time!
This is just so great. I love the 3rd version the most too.. You did justice to this.. Thanks for sharing the story of Su shi with us
Thank you for enjoying this poem so much!