1 金風玉露宴交情 Amid the banquet, the golden wind and jade dew exchanging feelings,
2 酒滿高樓仍未停 Free flow of wine fills the lofty towers with signs of no stopping.
3 舉杯接觴政莫談 One lifted pint to toast, gallons returned with no talk of politics,
4 月到中秋分外明 The moon is especially bright during Mid-Autumn.
1 Golden wind – autumn air has that kind of crispy feel to it and because the lowered temperature of the season, dew forms easily, hence these two terms are used to mean the time of autumn. At the same time, they represent things of no permanence. The use of banquet alludes to the most important event of the season – the mid-autumn festival. There is the element of frivolities in a party.
2 高樓酒滿 is not as colourful. 滿 in 酒滿高樓 can be used as a verb, “to fill” to fulfill the function as an exaggeration. The use of “lofty” sets up the scene for the last line. Frivolities at the party never cease.
3 The first four characters are from the Thousand Character Classic – 舉杯接觴, 悦豫且康. I decided that using the literal translation did not work well to paint the exaggeration. 杯 means cup and a 觴 is a globlet/stein, a much bigger vessel than a Chinese wine cup. https://daxueconsulting.com/understand-drinking-culture-china/
4 This comes from 馮夢龍’s ”醒世恒言卷十八”. The preceding line is 人逢喜事精神爽. -”On encountering happy events, one’s spirit soars”
Thursday, 28 September 2023
However, today on the Festival itself, the sky was overcast and I don’t think the above poem is appropriate because of the changed circumstances. So, I had another one composed…
1 夜臨中秋蔽月霧 Night approacheth Mid-Autumn with fog veiling the moon,
2 烏雲密聚嘉州佈 Dark clouds densely gathered and spread all over California.
3昔比今非莫要愁 Fret not in sorrow as the present is unlike in the past,
4 畫雕壁映嫦娥到 With walls etched in images of the Moon Goddess descending into my room.
1 The use of fog is to imply that the low-lying areas cannot view the moon.
2 Implies there’s no need to go to higher places or elsewhere either since the entire state is obscured.
3 The pivot line turning to hope because we are now living in a modern age.
4 There is no direct mention of “descending”, “my room” in the original. These are used to capture a more vivid imagery to the translation. What is unspoken in the original is understood. Here the images refer to a video being played on giant wall TV.
Friday, 29 September 2023