Ramblings

KINGFISHER ON MY FENCE

2010-03-12T04:50:00.000-08:00

On the 12th day of CNY 2010 this friend came to greet me and how glad I was. As WW said, O welcome messenger! O welcome friend !

Kingfisher sits on my garden fence

It sat quietly on my garden fence as I enjoyed my beads sitting by the window. Looking up I was startled to spy my companion in blue from the forests wild - (shades of WW) HeHe! And so I crept silently away for my camera.

blue-backed and white-breasted

Close up

Kingfisher on the fence
By my window deep into beads
Blue companion and me.
CNY 2010

READER AT THE WINDOW

2010-01-29T04:43:00.000-08:00

Far from the throbbing tourists, this Khmer kid enjoys

a book sitting on the window sill of one of the Angkor temples

Angkor Wat, Seam Reap, 2007

Flypast

2009-12-03T06:07:00.000-08:00

Red and white clouds glow

parrots, little dots of black flypast

the evening sky

Dec 2009

Flypast 2

2nd pic captured by Heng 11th Dec 2009

These parrots have a regular hour for their flypast. They usually appear between 6.45pm-7.00pm, making quite a din on their flight.

ODE TO SORBEE

2009-11-29T03:57:00.000-08:00

You came into my life one day

bearing a bunch of leaves in your beak

you weaved a nest using your

black beak and sticky saliva

on my antique bell

"Tweet! Tweet!" no matter where I roam

I recognize your sharp whistle

No songbird, but

"O blithe newcomer, I have heard,

I hear thee and rejoice,

O Sor Bee shall I call thee BIRD?"

(with apologies to Will Wordsworth,

the father of all nature lovers)

You shared with me your precious moments

Snugly sleeping in your nest...so serenely

feeding your young...so tenderly

teaching them to spread their wings...so protectively

and father bird with the black neck spreads iridescent wings

with paternal pride

Thanks Sor Bee* for enriching my life

*This is a term of endearment in dialect for a wee loved thing

ENRIGHT'S BENCH

2009-10-02T06:23:00.000-07:00

I chanced upon this bench
On a high ledge along

Red Brick Path in Botanic Gardens

overlooking old trees, some are fossils

among sunlight and birdsong

as in some enchanted garden

Sits the bench

Prof I can see your spirit sitting here

Pulling at your pipe

What wry thoughts occupy your mind

As you observe the scene ?

Will you write a satirical verse?

I dont know whether you liked nature

But your students sure picked a serene spot

If they chose this spot

they must have known your taste

Would you approve the choice ?

I belonged to their era

and perhaps part of yours

Not to this buzzing world of

IRs, F1s and Flyer Wheeels

Count myself lucky to find

this green oasis

Commemorative to your memory

Says the plaque which I discovered

as an oversight

This rustic wooden bench

but how rich

the space, light and lightness

all around

I hope this silly rhyme will not make you turn....

I was not one of your students

I knew you only by hearsay

So, I am not paying homage

just want to say thank you

for this pleasant seat

to rest my aching legs

to enjoy the brightness

and the breeze.

SNAKE @ MY WINDOW

2009-10-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

You dropped with a plop

From the sill to the sink

Oh ! Snake !

What a fright ! I felt

Fear and Revulsion followed by

Fascination

As I monitored your movements

For half an hour

aluminium camaflouge you

As you dance, prance on my grilles

your private stance.

Like Lawrence I threw

objects to chase you

from my Domain.

Unlike Lawrence I was glad

you came and went

with no Complexities

Good Bye ! God Bless

Little Brother

SNAKE

QINGMING 2003

2009-09-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

"Qing Ming si jie yu fen fen

Lu san xing ren yu duan hun

Jie wen jiu jia he chu you

Mu tong yao zi Xing Hua Cun"

A Tang dynasty poem, on the Qingming or Tomb Sweeping Festival by Du Mu

April may be the cruellest month for Eliot, but for ethnic Chinese all over the world it is also the saddest month as its tomb sweeping time. April 5, 2003 was Tomb Sweeping Festival Day and marked the start of the month long period when filial sons and daughters flock to spruce up the graves of their ancestors, bring offerings and flowers, joss and incense. The centuries old tradition of sao mu or tomb sweeping is now perpetuated in Singapore mostly by visits to temple niches or secular columbariums where the cremated ashes of the dear departed are kept.

In the Tang poem Tomb Sweeping Festival aka Apricot Village, Du Mu imortalizes the melancholy mood of Qingming Festival. Two Qingmings ago my dad was still alive. Like the typical Chinese-educated of his generation dad loved Chinese poetry, especially Tang poetry.

My Chinese at best is weak but like my sister Lucy would say dad's genes must run strong in us as I share his love of Chinese poetry. By dint of sheer persistence, and with the help of audio tapes, pinyin dictionary, and english translations, I had mastered, if not 300 Tang poems, at least 30 odd ones !

Dad passed away in October2001 and during the Qingming period of that year his health was failing rapidly. Affected by the season or perhaps he knew his time was drawing near he would, by way of greeting, recite Du Mu's sad little verse to me whenever I visited him in April of 2001.

Ill health and old age kept dad in low spirits and he was often not quite himself. It was hard to find a breakthrough and the only communication I could elicit was through recitation of old poems that he had learnt and loved in childhood and adulthood. So we went through well loved verses like Song xia wen tong zi, Shao xiao li jia lao da hui, Xiang si, Huang he lou, Song you ren and many more. In retrospect, I don't know whether this improved dad's condition or mine, but at least there was this thread that could still distract us from present sorrow and pain. He was not always receptive though. Sometimes, retreating into his own world, he would grumble at me to "stop putting him through the test".

At his age Dad was still up to composing a verse (I'm not sure whether he really composed it or dragged it from some corner of his memory) describing my half brother, KP's house, where he resided for a while. He loved reciting this verse too:

Chuang qian shuang bai shu

Hou you wan mu tian!

This has been used as his epitaph on the urn keeping his ashes at the Chua Chu Kang columbarium.

Perhaps the best loved poem for dad was South and north of the mounds are scattered the many graveyards, another Qingming verse. We always recite this in Cantonese which is also my "mother's tongue" and which is also a very good dialect for reciting Chinese verses. Here is the verse written in dad's last handwriting and calligraphy, a little shaky and slightly indecipherable. He had also forgotten the strokes of a few words which I have phonetically "translated" from Cantonese into English.

Dad's last calligraphy and one of the saddest Chinese poems

Unfortunately, I cannot locate the source, age or name of poet and even my aunty in China cannot throw any light. At that stage my dad was too far gone in ill health and memory loss to recall the details.

And so, Qingming 2003 my family and I were at dad's niche in Chua Chu Kang columbarium, to sao mu to bring flowers and incense.

Postscript May 8th 2005 Thanks to my cousin Jian Hu from Fujian I have been able to trace the source of the poem "South and north of the mounds...." The correct title of this poem should be "Drinking wine on Qingming Day" and the poet is Song Dynasty poet ¸ßôã (Gao Zhi ). Furthermore thanks to my niece Chen Jie from Fujian, my piece Qingming dedicated to the memory of my late father has been translated into Chinese which is reproduced in the next post for Chinese readers on the net.

Qingming Chinese version

To view the Chinese version please set your browser to receive simplified Chinese.

Qingming 2003 (Chinese version)

2009-09-26T05:00:00.001-07:00

清明（2003年）作者世英。译者陈洁

translated by Chen Jie (陈洁)，my niece from China

四月对艾略特(Eliot)来说也许是最残酷的时节，对于全世界的华人来说也是一个悲伤和追思的时节，因为这是扫墓的时候。 2003年4月5日是清明节，这意味着那些孝顺的子孙们为他们的祖先整修坟墓，并带上供品、鲜花以及香去祭拜已故亲人的日子到了。这个延续了几千年之久的中华民族扫墓传统今天在新加坡，除了扫墓，已?演变成去朝拜存放骨灰的寺庙或者到专门存放骨灰的安置室去拜祭已故亲人了。

在这首描写清明的唐诗中，杜牧营造了清明节忧郁的气氛。两年之前，我父亲还活着，就像那些受过中国传统教育的那一代人一样，他爱好中国诗歌，尤其是唐诗。

我的汉语很不好。但正如我姐姐所说的，父亲基因的影响很大，我和他一样喜欢中国诗歌。在父亲的指导下，加上我坚持不懈的努力，并且在录音带，拼音字典以及英文?译的帮助下，我会背诵即使没有三百首，那至少也有三十多首的唐诗！

父亲是2001年10月去世的。那年的清明后，由于气候的影响，父亲的身体每况愈下。他意识到时日不多了，每次我去看他，他都要背诵一些伤怀的中国古诗。

由于身体越来越不好，年纪越来越大，父亲的精神很差，我们之间唯一的交流方式就是背诵他小时候和成年后所喜欢的那些老诗。于是我们一起背诵了那些我们都很喜爱的诗，如“松下问童子”，“少小离家老大回”，《乡思》、《黄鹤楼》、《送友人》等等。现在回想起来，我记不清这样是否能够改善父亲或者是我的情绪，但至少是一种可以让我们忘掉苦恼的办法。父亲总是无法接受病魔的长期纠缠，有时候他会把自己封闭在自己的世界里，于是他就会抱怨我说：“不要让我再?历这种考验吧！”

父亲在这个年纪仍然为我的二哥KP（镜平）的房子题了首诗。（我无法确定那首诗是否是他自己写的，还是从他的记忆深处挖掘出来的。）他也很喜欢背诵这首诗。如今这首诗“窗前双柏树，后有万亩田！”已成为在蔡厝港（Chua Chu Kang）存放父亲骨灰盒处的墓志铭。

父亲最爱的诗是另一首描写清明的诗“南北山头多墓田”。我们?常用我母亲的家乡话广东话来背诵这首诗。广东话也是背中文诗很好的方言。下面是父亲这首诗的手写稿，字有一点歪斜有一点模糊难懂。父亲也忘了有些字的笔?，所以我就根据广东话的读音把这?译成英文。

很可惜，我无法考证这首诗的来源以及作者的年纪和姓名，连我在中国的姑妈也没能帮我解开这个谜。当时我父亲的身体和记性都很差，已无法想起这些细节了

2003年的清明，我和我家人带着鲜花和香到蔡厝港（Chua Chu Kang）为我父亲扫墓。

是的，露西，父亲已?去世了，但他永远活在我们心中！ 2003年5月

附言：这篇文章并不仅仅是要记述父亲弥留之际的那些日子里发生的一些事情。而且是对咱们中国传统节日??清明节祭祀先人的纪念活动以及对父亲的怀念。

附言no.2 2005 年5月8 日:感谢我的堂哥鉴湖帮助我追踪诗 “南北山头多墓田”来源. 这首诗的正确的标题应该是"清明日对酒 " 并且诗人是宋朝诗人高翥。此外感谢我的甥女陈洁，?译从英语到汉语我的文章清明, 下面被再生产。清明是致力我已故的父亲记忆。我希望中国读者在互联网能读它。

清明日对酒高翥

南北山头多墓田，清明祭扫各纷然。

纸灰飞作白蝴蝶，泪血染成红杜鹃。

日落狐狸眠冢上，夜归儿女笑灯前。

人生有酒须当醉，一滴何曾到九泉？

高翥（ 1170??1241）　南宋诗人。字九万，号菊（左石右间）。浙?余姚人。游荡?湖，布衣终身。著《菊（左石右间）小集》，有《南宋群贤小集》本，《信天巢遗稿》，有《四库全书》本。高翥是?湖派中较有才情的诗人。他的一些诗具有民歌风味，如《秋日田父辞二首》写农村风俗，语言朴素自然；《春情四首》如民间情歌；《无题》诗也写得与竹枝词相仿佛,如：“风竹萧萧?月明,孤眠真（上竹下固）可怜生。不知昨夜相思梦，去到伊行是几更？”他擅长以平易自然的诗句写出寻常不?意的景色，如“草色溪流高下碧，菜花杨柳浅深黄”(《晓出黄山寺》)，把草色和溪流、菜花和杨柳这些常见的景物写得相映成趣。《多景楼》以深秋晚景衬托故国之思，笔致雅?。