A wintery Friday morning
I discovered it
through the lecture of a Chinese literature professor
as he struggled to translate its beauty into an alien language
To the charms of Nian Nou
-Thinking about the past of Red Cliff
of the poet Su Dongpo.
"Riotous stones pierce the sky
Harrowing surf slaps the shore
Swirling up a thousands mounds of snow"
He wrote contemplating the past, of the days that would never be, of the glories that were, of life which seemed like a dream.
Here I am walking the same path, several centuries hence
being led by him into the past, into the dream.
I fail to understand where the line blurs
between the past and present
between the life and the dream.
Flowing with the words
falling free
He drank the wine of life with zest
Here I am
trying to join the flow of the river
which goes no where
but yet never stays there
While Su Shi and his friend drifted in a boat on the Yangtze river
His friend played the flute and sang
It was the moment
when they were in dialogue
with History
with present, which now is History
"Life is so short, only enough to do something.
Life is short, why bother in the trivialities,
it is too small for anything other than communion with nature"
Thus they talked my worries
"Life is finite
but it is also infinite through nature, universe which lives on forever."
"Lamenting the brevity of our lives
Envying the infinitude of the Yangtze river
We know this cannot be done
And cast echoes to the sad wind
The breeze on the river"
While they longed for infinity
I am yet contemplating the brevity
I am still in search of that embrace
of the nature
"There are two things you can take without limit namely the breeze on the river and the moon light on the mountain
These are mine and yours
As the sounds of my ears and
As the color to my eyes
Take them as free
Use them without limit
This is a great bounty provided by the creator
To be enjoyed by you and me or together"
Now there are limits
but still somethings are beyond
I wonder if the moon could talk
would it tell me your stories
I wonder if the worlds run in parallel
I wonder If you are sitting by the river
and writing this now
As I respond to it
I wonder
Are we in a dialogue
across time and space
Su Dongpo went to the woody area trying to become one with nature
He gets scared by the strange sounds
By the solitude
Encounters a solitary crane which had achieved it,
The communion with nature.
Let me tell you, I have heard those sounds
But I have been the crane too
I understand your loneliness
but let me assure
it is just a matter of time
For like you said
we are all eternity
so where is the fear
it is the same woods
the same river and the same moon
and we have been here forever
will be here
forever
As I was in a dialog with you
The Chinese professor introduced me to someone who has been observing it all
"Only through a transformation into words, images and musical notes can we expect to freeze a certain form and a certain mental state and form another existence a continuation. Through the long corridors of time and space, it makes people who live in different times and spaces to merge their lives into each other without hindrance"-Shen Congwen (1961)
"Makes people who live in different times and spaces to merge their lives into each other without hindrance..."
Does that mean I am you or you are me?
Sources:
Stuart. H. Sargent, trans., "To the charms of Niannu"-Thinking about the past at the Red Scarp" in a silver treasury of Chinese lyrics, ed. Alice W. Cheung (Hond Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2003)
Classics of Chinese Humanities: Guided Readings by Prof. Ou Fan Leo Lee
