From the towering stacks of books in my room, I managed to recover a small diary which i used to write Chinese poems during my secondary days. It felt like meeting a long lost friend after all these years and it was especially comforting since this is a stressful period for me.
Reading through some of them brought tears of laughter to my eyes. Some were top-notch silly and unintentionally funny, others brought back heartaches and buried memories. I could really print a mini-magazine out of it seeing how well i had organized them into columns - these poems were accompanied with a palm-sized pencil sketch of a scenic impression and completed with a description of the story behind them.
I especially liked this one. It's special because this was a collaboration between me and an admirable friend and it really captured our thoughts on relationship during that time.
明 月 疏 起 霜 雪 地 ，
沉 夜 默 化 楚 清 言 。
末 人 能 解 千 古 愁 ，
情 本 无 非 人 自 受 。
The pages in the book have mellowed as those pencil sketches grew faint with time, but the memories engraved in those words remained as fresh as when i first penned it. =)
Posted by
Musical Tadpole
3 comments:
Did you study Chinese Literature back in secondary school? This is embarrassing, but I think my standard of 文言文 isn't good enough to understand your poem. I like the last line though!
Still, I have to affirm my admiration for you as an artist. It definitely seemed like you were meant to be a songwriter all along! I don't think I was so prolific a writer back then.
Haha, I was actually in the English literature class. =p
Maybe i should explain the poem a little.
It's saying that from the silence of the late night, the author found sanctuary in his thoughts. Since olden times, no man has been able to escape from the cycle of love, which is all but self-incurred sufferings.
Hahaha, thanks for such a positive comment but i can't claim credit for a collaborated work :) I've composed some downright silly poems that are too embarrassing to be posted here too. They gave me a really good laughter though.
Thanks for the explanation! Now that I have a better understanding, I can appreciate the poem more. Love is definitely a form of self-incurred suffering.
Anyway I was from an English literature class too. Can't say I did too well for it though. Still, grades have no relation to passion. No matter what, let's continue exploring our realms of interest!
Post a Comment