Memoir回憶錄回忆录

律韻情深詩詞選輯Selected Poems of Enduring Love

陳昌智 Chen Xoung-Chi

Chen Xoung-Chi’s poems in classical Chinese forms, each with notes on when and why he wrote it, published in memory of his mother. A few of her poems close the book.

陳昌智以傳統格律寫成的詩詞，每首附有註釋與創作背景，為紀念母親而出版。書末附有母親的幾首詩作。

陈昌智以传统格律写成的诗词，每首附有注释与创作背景，为纪念母亲而出版。书末附有母亲的几首诗作。

Full book · 全書 (PDF)

簡介由 AI（Claude）譯自英文，尚未經作者審閱。

作者簡介

陳昌智先生，1940年7月7日生，祖籍中國河南省南陽。1962年畢業於國防部聯合勤務總司令部財務學校，曾任職於聯勤總部財務署、救國團基隆市及台北市團委會，以及巴拿馬中文報紙《共和報》。陳先生是知名的報紙編輯，著有多部中文作品。

本書收錄作者以中國傳統格律創作的詩詞。陳先生自幼受父母與家學薰陶，對詩詞有濃厚興趣。他自1980年代起即是卓有成就的作家與報紙編輯，但直到世紀之交、年屆六十，才開始認真寫詩。美國碧波關懷地球人文協會很榮幸提供平台，出版陳先生的第一部詩集，以紀念他摯愛的母親。書末並附上他母親的幾首詩作與短文。

詩詞之路匍匐行(序）
【春入草原】
2：【四月瑞雪】
3：【霎那之間】
4：【遙望鄉關】
5：【巴拿馬運河】
6：【小城農舍】
7：【年華流失】
8：【山中夜宿】
9：【漫步山林】
10：【大峽谷】
11：【綺夢桃源】
12：【虞美人】
13：【訴衷情】
14：【法雲寺】
15：【詠鴉】
16：【卜算子】
17：【逐夢山湖】
18：【老樹吟】
19：【寂夜簫箏】
20：【香格里拉】
21：【環球影城】
22：【迪斯尼樂園】
23：【兩地情懷】
24：【滿園葱蘢】
25：【棋如人生】
26：【生命永恆】
27：【傷離情懷】
28：【離思】
29：【觀雨】
30：【如夢令】
31：【訴衷情】
32：【桂芳】
33：【薄倖】
34：【情痴】
35：【採桑子】
36：【世博會開幕】
37：【恬淡浮生】
38：【蓮花】
39：【昨夜今晨】
40：【不待年芳】
41：【蝶飛天上】
42：【月照離人】
43：【鑽石良緣】
44：【巨星殞落】流行天王𠎀克森，
45：【浮雲生涯】
46：【卜算子】
47：【君臥白雲】
48：【採桑子】
49：【梅蘭芳香】
50：【紅麈自在】
51：【冬至思鄉】
52：【寂落洞庭】
53：【月鉤畫樓】
54：【春華縱逝】
55：【惜花花殘】
56：【夜航南海】
57：【舟渡關山】
58：【點絳脣】
59：【滿江紅】
60：【蘇幕遮】
61：【八八水災】
62：【餞別】
63：【彈指瞬間】
64【月色朦朧】
65：【懷殤】
【寫在律韻情深詩詞選集之後】
【附錄】
1，【庭院深處】
2，【天賜姻緣】
3，【虔求聖母】
4，【思思念念】
6，【寄不出的簡訊】

詩詞之路匍匐行(序）

民國32年，抗戰進入最艱困時期。家住四川省榮昌縣鄉下，是一個春末夏初的季節，竹林裡傳來陣陣黃鸝鳥兒的鳴聲，百囀千回，婉轉悽惻。姥姥思念失蹤的外公，情不自禁地吟誦金昌緒的「春怨」：「打起黃鶯兒，莫教枝上啼。啼時驚妾夢，不得到遼西。」這是我初次接觸到唐詩，雖經母親解說，仍然懵懂不明。

唸初中時，國文老師丘東旭，講解蘇軾的「赤壁懷古」，深入淺出，清清楚楚地解釋了詞的內容，明明白白地了解到蘇軾作這首「念奴嬌」的時代背景，無疑給我開了一扇詩的大門。從此，我對詩詞有了進一層的認識和愛好。

民國43年的暑假，家裡訂了一份「青年戰士報」，每天下午由郵差派來，我是第一個瀏覽的人，輪流看完後，成了我的專屬。副刊必讀，內容豐富遍及散文、小說、現代詩及古典詩詞欣賞，執筆者多為軍中作家。

看過的報紙不忍丟棄，將喜愛的文章剪貼在一本簿子上，以備隨時翻閱背誦。我把詩詞貼成專册，詳盡的賞析解說，幫助我了解到，詩中有無盡的深情和道不盡的意境之美。(1）

我對詩詞的愛好，數十年如一日。詩的種子埋在地下已有多時，總想有一天能有作品出現，讓它穿破地表迎向陽光。

1979年10月，我遠赴中美洲巴拿馬，出任一間僑報的編輯，外行人做了內行事，編輯撰寫兼行政，一待就是十九年，自嘲為蘇武牧羊。

我對充實副刊內容，不遺餘力。詩詞來稿不乏佳作，常與作者談詩會友，從中學習領會了一些創作技巧。偶爾也提筆賣弄一番，覺得牛頭不對馬嘴，最終成了垃圾廢物。

2006年4月，我與妻旅次科羅拉多州丹佛市郊布倫菲爾小鎮，探望在該鎮科學園區工作的小兒Anderson。宿舍小樓位於一座山坡之上，視野遼闊，大片草原遠及數里，遠方落磯山脈盡收眼底。四月天已是碧草如茵，草原上的湖泊可見天鵝雁鴨戲水。蜿蜒的山路兩旁，杜鵑花盛開，欣逢四月飄雪，更是驚艷。

如此明媚風光良辰美景，耐不住春的誘惑，有了寫詩的念頭。生平第一首不算詩的詩，「春入草原」七絕，在改了又改，琢磨又琢磨之下，終於完成，吾妻成了第一位讀者，給了一個「馬馬虎虎」的評語。往後每完成一首，都會電話台灣，朗誦給母親聽，反正娘不嫌兒醜。（2）

在母親的加持勉勵下，詩興泉湧而至，始料未及三年之內，竟然完成近80首創作，其中有12首詞。包括思鄉的、勵志的、送別的、悼亡的、嘲諷的、懷人詠事詠物的，也有一些打油詩。

2009年9月，我因心梗做了搭橋手術，醫囑靜心療養，詩作暫告一段落。往後各年，偶有即興之作。

2013年1月31日癸巳年陰曆除夕，寫了一首「除夕作」，表達當時的心情曰：客鄉除夜有溫暖，樽前圍爐閤家歡。樂天知命心隨缘，豁然達觀又一年。

完成這首「除夕作」後，專注散文書寫。詩詞原稿封塵至今，日前興致盎然，翻閲再謮。

中國自古以來就是詩的國度，也是國人身分的文化符號。幸得詩緣，自勉潛心修練，能夠續筆提作，用寧謐的心境，詩筆出更廣闊的生活領域。

感恩母親為詩集取名為「律韻情深」，𧫴以此文作為前頭語，並慰先慈在天安息。

2021年2月11日

庚子年除夕於洛杉磯(3）

【春入草原】

春入草原金雀花
近徑遠山映斜陽
鴻雁偎倚湖邊柳
浮雲輕風落水鄕

註釋：

1，金雀花是一種黃色小花，每年春天見於落磯山脈。2，「鴻雁」二字原是詩經小雅的篇名，比喻戰亂中流離的災民。

背景：

2006年春，旅次科羅拉多州布倫菲爾（Bloomfield)小鎮，與任職於Sun Microsystems科技公司的小兒Anderson作暫短團聚。住處位於山坡，遠方是落磯山脈，風景宜人。山下一片綠茵草原，金雀花隨風搖曳。湖濱鴻雁偎依柳邊，白雲掠過湖面。即興作了這首七絕小詩，曾修改兩次。

2：【四月瑞雪】

落磯山脈峰峰連，
四月瑞雪飄草原。
大地銀色碧雲天，
冬去春來慶豐年。

詮釋：

落磯山（Rock Mountains)是美洲西部主要山脈，北起加拿大不列顛哥倫比亞省，縱貫美國西部至新墨西哥州，海拔4389公尺，綿延4800公里。

背景：

2006年春，旅次科羅拉多州丹佛落磯山麓，生平首見四月飄雪。綠茵草原初綻之時，又見銀色大地，是一次驚喜的邂逅。

丹佛農民相傳，每逢四月雪，該年必是豐年。

3：【霎那之間】

月矇銀花飛，
猶似雲霧來。
霎時一瞬間，
山頭一夜白。

背景：

2006年4月，旅次科州丹佛山居，品茗夜讀曹操《短歌行》，首四句「對酒當歌，人生幾何。譬如朝露，去日苦多。」慨嘆人生的短促和年華的消失。

賞析全文，曹操並非消極看待人生，主題表達思賢若渴的心情和對人才的尊重。自勉生命可貴，瞬間兩鬢斑白，竭盡所能，耕耘社稷，造福於民，天下歸心。

該夜月矇之中雪花飄飛，瞬間一夜山頭皚白。有感而發，以雪景變化譬喻人生。

4：【遙望鄉關】

大雁比翼飛南方，
欲託錦書至邊鄕。
邊鄕當年千索事，
紙短情長訴難詳。
遙望鄉關五千里，
物是人非難思量。
回首僑鄉十九年，
自喻蘇武在北疆。

註釋：

1，大雁：鴻雁的俗稱，隨季節變更而遷移，每年來去定時，古代通信不便，常透過大雁傳遞書信。

2，錦書：即書信。

3，丹佛至巴拿馬相距4249公里。

背景：

繼2006年4月之後，2007年2月初與妻再度去丹佛，與Anderson共渡春節，青山、綠茵、草原、小湖、步道，景物依舊。

2月4日立春，雪霽之後，天高氣爽。午後，有線電視地理台，播放巴拿馬系列風情，見窗外群雁南飛，不禁思念起，那曾經生活過19年的地方。頓時臆想，託雁寄書至那遠方的家。

巴拿馬風物人情，常懸吾心。寫七律一首，以茲追憶。

5：【巴拿馬運河】

運河綺麗好風光，
橫跨兩洋。
晨曦紫氣，
雲輕霧薄和風揚。
鐵牛引船進水閘，
水高船漲。
閘水平湖，
開閘船鳴湖中航。
朱槿重葛紅似火，
船伴夕陽。
碧水藍浦，
柳垂荷開蓮綻香。
湖深桿長垂釣樂，
鱒肥鯽壯。
湖闊波平，
夾岸雨林椰樹長。
煙雨霽後浮雲起，
霞遊湖上。
笙歌夜航，
星月爭輝浮水鄉。
欲作海鷗伴船行，
鄉關遙望。
人隔萬里，
羈旅寄船雁書鄕。

註釋：

1，運河：橫跨巴拿馬地峽，連接太平洋及大西洋兩岸，全長82公里，世界航運要道之一，建成於1914年8月15日。

2，水閘：運河與海平面高低落差20公尺，船隻通過須以水閘控制水位。

3，鐵牛：水閘堤上的電動拖車，俗稱「電騾子」，船隻過水閘時，由鐵牛牽引。

背景：

小學同學高祖光，來美後過著隠退生活，子女已成家立業，均住加州。2006年在洛杉磯東北山區，購得一座山間小屋，居民十餘戶。伉儷倆快樂過活，樂似神仙。

山似鷄冠，故名鷄冠山，海拔1546公尺，有公路闢至半山腰，居民或訪客，車輛均須集中停放在山間停車場內，再由步道上山，行約十分鐘，可達小屋。

2008年10月下旬已是深秋時節，寒露已過。一個週末假日，受邀上山歡聚，由長兒Anthony駕車帶路，與妻一起上山拜訪。在山中留宿一夜，大夥長夜漫談至天明。

9：【漫步山林】

朝露林中見，
風搖霧霑衿。
濛濛山徑步履輕，
何處飛來
黃雀枝頭啼。
谷中幽蘭香，
拂面曉氣清。
雲湧嵐起松崖上，
雁飛青天
行行掠空鳴。

背景：

繼2008年10月之後，2010年8月，再次造訪洛杉磯東北鷄冠山，同樣晚宿山中。

甲辰戎馬戍浯州，
浪嶼盡眼中。
夢斷邊陲何處？
羈旅半世流。
度盡刼，兩岸情，
泯恩仇。
鬢髯已秋，
身老加州，
心念神州。

註釋：

1，甲辰：民國53年，干支甲辰。2，浯州：金門古稱。3，浪嶼：鼓浪嶼，廈門市西南小島，面積近二平方公里，人口約兩萬人(2008年），著名風景區，有「海上花園」之稱，2017年列入聯合國教科文組織世界遺產名錄。

背景：

民國53年，我以中尉官階奉派金門前線服役，在小金門（烈嶼）服務一年。常至湖井頭喊話站，遙望對岸廈門及鼓浪嶼，島上活動歷歷在目。

時隔半世紀，兩岸朝向「互信互助，共創雙贏」目標奮鬥。當年戰地生活，常在夢中出現。夢醒，不知身在何處？

明朝時，金門稱浯州，其形似金錠，又扼閩南門戶，清初更名為金門。

度盡刼，泯恩仇，出自魯迅「題三義塔」，文內有「渡盡刼波兄弟在，相逢一笑泯恩仇」字句。且看兩岸如何化解歷史的恩怨，我雖生活在加州，卻念茲在茲那個神州大陸。

上則訴衷情填詞，寫於2008年4月17日於洛杉磯。

14：【法雲寺】

裊煙松林，
山出遠照，
廟院晨鐘傳響。
邐迤清川，
石階而上，
清風迎面竹揚。
拂塵去垢，
修禪靜心，
蓮池荷綻花香。
碧空藍天，
白雲道場，
嵯峨樓殿倚陽。

註釋：

1，法雲寺：位於台灣苗栗縣大湖鄕觀音山上，海拔901公尺，台灣佛教四大法派之一的法雲寺派。2，裊煙：繚繞的白雲。3，邐迤：曲折綿延。

背景：

環球影城：Universal Studios Hollywood，美國加州洛杉磯娛樂之都，滙集多項好萊塢電影製作設施，給遊客帶來無限歡樂感受。

背景：

1920年代，美國電影事業興起，加州洛杉磯的好萊塢，以大手筆投資，精密的分工，一流的演藝人員，驚人的效率，經典巨作陸續推出，激起了世人的新思維，也增添滋潤了人們的心靈，成為美國文化當中，最具代表性，影響力最大的一部份。

在台灣看了不少好萊塢膾炙人口的名片，期盼機緣能至好萊塢圓夢一遊，沒想到家遷洛杉磯，2008年還購得年票，一年之內全家三次𣈱遊好萊塢。

22：【迪斯尼樂園】

洛城南隅迪斯尼，
虛擬世界見驚奇。
小小世界妙妙妙，
童言童語笑盈盈。
白雪公主七矮人，
長耳白兔小精靈。
城堡王國大笨狗，
米奇米妮飛天際。
大嘴扁帽唐老鴨，
巫婆騰飛逐烏鴉。
火樹銀花燈如晝，
寶馬雕車香滿路。
夢幻樂園眼前見，
夜空璀燦星如雨。
幸福兒童新天地，
行歌唱遍人叢裡。

註釋：

迪斯尼樂園：Disneyland Park，又稱加州迪斯尼樂園，位於美國加州安納罕市。面積0．524平方公里，1955年開園，是世界第一個迪斯尼樂園。

背景：

1985年7月，我家兩個孩子，還在巴拿馬運河區讀小學，美軍8號電視台，播放加州迪斯尼樂園開園30週年慶祝活動，對迪斯尼樂園有了深刻印象，期盼能到樂園一遊。15年後的2000年，家遷洛杉磯，終於圓夢。

23：【兩地情懷】

影城夢幻迪斯尼，
洛城歡。
玉山陽明阿里山，
夢台灣。
爵士搖滾鄕村樂，
順耳聽。
掌中布袋歌仔戲，
猶未盡。
起司沙拉肯塔鷄，
食開懷。
燒粽麵線鹵肉飯，
餘味在。
獨院綠樹帶花園，
話今朝。
眷村泥地小宅院，
憶當年。

註釋：

1，爵士：爵士樂Jazz，19世紀末至20世紀初，起源於美國路易西安那州新奧爾良，非裔美國人社區的音樂。2，搖滾：搖滾樂Rock Music，20世紀50年代，起源於美國俄亥俄州，係搖滾（Rock and Roll）音樂中的一種廣泛音樂。在英國和美國發展成一系列不同風格，大膽靈活，富於激情。3，鄉村樂：Country Masic，起源自1920年代美國南部各州，曲風屬傳統民歌。4，肯塔鷄：Kentucky Fried Chicken，簡稱KFC，係美國跨國連鎖速食餐廳之一，以出售炸雞聞名。

背景：

僑居海外40年，入鄉隨俗，已把僑鄉當故鄉。親不親，故鄉人。美不美，故鄉水。常念故鄉人和水。

2011年11月，秋遊洛杉磯東北，海拔2100公尺的聖伯納汀諾國家森林公園，正是楓葉紅紅之時。

夜讀賞楓唐宋詩詞：宋．朱淑真《對景漫成》「楓葉醉紅秋色里，兩三行雁夕陽中。」

唐．魚玄機《江陵愁望有寄》「憶君心似西江水，日夜東流無歇時。」

宋．寇準《江上》「空江極目望不盡，楓葉半紅人未歸。」

不禁想起30餘年前的一段往事，填「訴衷情」一首抒懷。

2011年11月11日

於洛杉磯

32：【桂芳】

雲輕氣爽飄來香，
滿樹桂花溪橋旁。
清風吹落粟蕊黃，
疑是秋雨痴芬芳。

註釋：

粟蕊黃：粟一般叫「小米」，其蕊為黃色。宋．洪邁《桂花》有「風流直欲占秋光，葉底深藏粟蕊花。」詩句。粟蕊黃，指桂花的花蕾。

背景：

2007年10月返台探親，與家人同遊南港茶山畚箕湖，擇山林步道，行至桂花林欣賞桂花。

見一小河曲橋旁，風吹桂花，花落溪中，好一番「桂花雨」景色，讓人留連忘返。

次月返回洛杉磯寓所，芳鄰李老邀品嚐其烘焙之桂花茶，茶香四溢，馥郁芬芳，暢談返台登山欣賞桂花的怡情。

2007年11月15日寫於洛杉磯

33：【薄倖】

元稹曾喻滄海水，
除却巫山不是雲。
梧桐凋零清霜後，
方回頭白失伴飛。
文君一首白頭吟，
喚回相如無情心。
人間至愛有處尋，
朝鮮政浩大長今。
張生鶯鶯情可貴，
再無西廂皓月吟。
嬌嬌小妾貯金屋，
容顏失色糟糠妻。
薄倖俗夫何其多，
屢見不鮮貪財女。
卻看財盡絕情時，
風燭殘年空歎息。

註釋：

1，唐朝中葉詩人元稹，為悼念亡妻，曾作《離思》五首，用滄海、巫山比喻夫妻恩愛。

2，北宋詞人賀鑄，字方回。以填詞方式，懷念亡妻，用清霜二字形容秋天降霜後梧桐凋零。愛妻已死，萬分悲悽，自己則垂垂老矣，滿頭白髮孤雁單飛。

3，司馬相如係西漢時期天才橫溢的大文豪，看完其妻卓文君作的一首《白頭吟》後，十分感動，打消納妾念頭。

4，韓劇大長今，雖係電視劇，但並非子虛烏有。劇中男主角閔政浩與醫女大長今的愛情故事，給了「天下有情人終成眷屬」一個最佳的註解。

5，漢武帝欲納阿嬌為妾，以金屋藏之，最終妾失容顏，淪為糟糠。

6，元曲《西廂記》描述書生張君瑞與相國之女崔鶯鶯，衝破封建約束，終成眷屬。兩人以皓月為證，表達對愛情的忠貞。

背景：

妻的一位黃姓小學同學，與其丈夫由越南來美，育有一子一女，在南加州承包土木工程，成績斐然，家庭美滿。未料丈夫金屋藏嬌，事發之後，閙得滿城風雨，可謂一對歡喜冤家，俗夫愚女。

2009年7月23日寫於

中國大陸繼2008年北京奧運會之後，2010年上海又舉辦了一屆亮麗全球的世界博覽會。開幕日，在洛杉磯收視實況轉播，心有所感。

2010年5月1日寫於

洛杉磯

37：【恬淡浮生】

機關算盡，心計剜空，離不開手辣心毒，走不出心中牢籠。
奪權勢，爭愛寵，恨遺瀛台，怨留嵬坡，榮華富貴終成空。
色厲內蒞，碌碌庸庸，攀龍附鳳，南柯一夢。
天容水色，月白清風，一壺濁酒開懷飲，一杯茗茶沁香留。
想得開，放得下，坦率詼諧，田園樂融，一切都付笑談中。
恬淡自得，難得糊塗，浮生無定，情致閒悠。

註釋：

1，恬淡：心境安然淡泊，出自《莊子．天道》，「夫虛靜恬淡，寂漠無為者，天地之平，而道德之至。」

2，浮生：虛浮無定的人生，出自《莊子．刻意》，「其生若浮，其死若休。」

3，瀛台：北京舊淸宮西苑太液池，三面臨水，奇石林立，景緻優美，係清帝夏日聽政所在。光緒帝曾被慈禧太后幽禁於此，兩人一前一後，僅隔一日，憂恨之中，死於此處。

4，嵬坡：即馬嵬坡，或馬嵬關。唐玄宗時，發生安史之亂，玄宗奔蜀途中，隨行將士要求賜死楊妃，玄宗不得已，命高力士縊死貴妃於此。

與內子形同姐妹，同在「巴拿馬中巴文化中心中山學校」，擔任華語文教師的同事宋蔓莉，因大腸癌病逝巴拿馬拜迪亞醫院，年紀輕輕不到六十歲。留下夫婿及兩位美麗聰慧，天生麗質的女兒。長女Luna Lee曾獲得1994年中美洲六國華埠小姐后冠。在美驚聞噩耗，至感悲傷。

2007年2月7日

寫於丹佛

41：【蝶飛天上】

槎航銀河，
去塵雲飄，
卻學莊周蝶飛。
風簫笛聲入夢中，
辭家遠遊不歸。
仙樂飄飄，
麗宮高處，
玉宇映回明月。
合歡離散是前緣，
渺渺茫茫度推。

註釋：

1，槎：（音：查），竹筏、木筏。

2，莊周蝶飛：緣於莊周夢蝶，莊子有夢，變為蝴蝶，遨遊四方，夢醒，自己還是莊子。寓意是一次漫遊天人合一的夢境。

3，仙樂飄飄，麗宮高處：緣自白居易《長恨歌》「驪宮高處入青雲，仙樂風飄處處聞」。

4，玉宇：天空、宇宙之意，傳說中玉帝的居所，也指華麗的宮殿。

5，度推：揣測、想象之意，此處的「度」字，讀「舵」音。

背景：

2006年（丙戌年臘月29)，子夜入夢，見辭世已半年的胞弟，化為蝴蝶，搭乘竹筏飛往銀河，在玉宇遨遊，其樂無窮。夢醒，不見蝴蝶，我還是我。我在渺然中想象那天上仙境的種種。將夢中所見，醒來所想，紀錄下來。

2007年2月16日

寫於丹佛

42：【月照離人】

碧樓仰月望星空，
潭中別時見月娥。
去國辭親驪歌起，
月照離人更覺愁。
回首飄泊三十年，
海外紅麈韶光流。
幾番風雨僑鄉客，
當年明月今夜逢。

註釋：

1，碧樓：碧潭觀景樓，在「小赤壁」峭石之上。

2，月娥：月中仙子。

3，離人：離開家鄉的人，常代表傷感。

背景：

1979年10月5日，適逢中秋佳節，雙親邀約諸子女及孫兒們，在碧潭觀景台賞月，月底我遠赴巴拿馬發展。次年與妻兒團聚，共同打拼長達19年，後移民來美，至2009年整整30年。

春去秋來，幾番風雨，歎世事滄桑，瞬間鬢已成霜。

2009年10月3日，中秋皓月長空，與妻兒在居家附近的翠湖公園賞月，仰月望星空，回憶當年碧潭情景，又見當年明月。欷吁嗟歎，感觸萬千。

43：【鑽石良緣】

前年今日此樓中，
抆血瀝泣襲心霾。
人事已非景依舊，
小屋追思獨徘徊。
良緣締結七十載，
家和庭旺堪開懷。
無可奈何影蹤去，
音容猶在夢歸來。

註釋：

1，鑽石良緣：維基百科稱結婚60週年為鑽石婚，70週年為白金婚。在美國習俗上，指鑽石婚是人生之中一個最隆重的結婚紀念日，代表長久婚姻的描述，此一概念廣泛用於世界各國。又稱結婚70週年為白金婚，描述的層次就更高了。

2，抆血瀝泣：指極其哀傷，擦拭淚水。緣自南朝梁．江淹《別賦》「割慈忍愛，離邦去里，瀝泣共訣，刎血相視」。

3，影：先父字「仲影」，此處之「影」指我的父親。

4，夢：外婆育有二女一男，長女係我的母親，乳名為「夢」。有意思的是，次女乳名叫「醒」。我的舅舅小名叫「燕昌」，皆是我的外曾祖父命名。

背景：

2009年10月9日，是父母親結婚70週年紀念日。兩年前的2007年10月9日，父親在母親的懷抱𥚃安祥辭世。

母親常在寓所樓中，獨自徘徊追思。景物依舊，父親卻不見蹤影，音容笑貌常在母親夢中歸來。

2009年10月9日，父母親結婚70週年於洛杉磯

44：【巨星殞落】流行天王𠎀克森，

盛年驟逝嘆惜深。
高難舞步姿優美，
歌喉風迷遍傳媒。
笑容可掬存臉頰，
超越種族一家親。
夢幻莊園留追憶，
媲美貓王勝黛妃。

註釋：

1，傑克森：麥可傑克森（Michael Jackson，1958年8月29日-2009年6月25日)，傳奇性的人生經歷，包括膚色、容貌的改變，甚至戀童。留下許多膾炙人口的音樂作品，流行魅力深植人心，被稱為「流行天王」。

2，貓王：艾維斯．普里斯萊(Elvis Presley 1935年1月8日-1977年8月16日)美國搖滾樂歌手，電影演員。

3，黛妃：威爾斯王妃黛安娜(Diana，Princess of Wales 1961年7月1日-1997年8月31日)，英國王儲威爾斯的元配。溫暖陽光的笑容，優雅知性的姿態，幸福的貴族少女，嫁進了英國皇室，卻錯愛了一個男人。

4，夢幻莊園(Neverland Ranch)園內景觀設施猶如其名，是麥可與孩子們的快樂天堂，位於加州聖巴巴拉縣Losolivos市郊。

2009年7月7日麥可追思會，寫於實況轉播電視機前。

45：【浮雲生涯】

榮華富貴似浮雲，
辭別故里赴他鄉。
編撰生涯十九年，
難為當年辦報郎。

註釋：

1，浮雲：天空飄浮的雲，《楚辭．宋玉．九辯》「塊獨守此無澤兮，仰浮雲而永歏」，比喻事物不足掛心。

2，生涯：指一個人經歷過的人生，《莊子．養生主》「吾生也有涯，而知也無涯」。

背景：

我在僑鄕巴拿馬，擔任僑報工作十九年，從不習慣到可以適應，再到喜愛不捨，雖歷程艱辛，平淡渡日，但甘之如飴。從工作中汲取了不少知識和經驗，也在生活中獲得了不少歴練和樂趣。

有人說「要想害一個人，就讓他去辦報紙」，我卻欣然面對，走了過來。

2009年7月10日寫於

洛杉磯

46：【卜算子】

倦鳥夜歸林，
斜陽照江暖。
山前燈火近黃昏，
返航霞唱晚。
江濤拍裂岸，
山巒雲飄嵐。
一輪秋月映星寒，
江水不復返。

註釋：

1，倦鳥：從旅居之地，返回故鄉的人。

2，江暖：斜陽照射下的淡水河。

3，山前：觀音山南麓的五股，淡水河北岸。

背景：

2007年10月，返台奔父喪。夜遊淡水河，話回當年情景。歲月悠悠，物換星移，事業家庭已落足國外，故鄉母親已入暮年，留去之間，難做決定。目送滾滾江水向東流，不甚欷歔。2009年4月4日清明於

洛杉磯

47：【君臥白雲】

長江浩蕩水，
巫山湧風雲。
君乘彩雲去，
昨夜夢嘉陵。
淡江注滄海，
夕照映雯英。
白雲堪臥君，
君臥白雲裡。

註釋：

1，巫山：海拔2400公尺，橫跨湖北、重慶、湖南三地。唐．元稹「曾經滄海難為水，除卻巫山不是雲」，隠喻夫妻感情即深廣又完美。如滄海之水，巫山之雲。

2，嘉陵：嘉陵江，係長江上游的一條支流，流經陜西鳯縣東北嘉陵谷而得名，在重慶市滙入長江。

3，淡江：台灣淡水河。

4，雯英：美麗的雲彩。

5，堪臥君：屈原《九歌．雲中君》有「華采衣兮若英，與日月兮齊光」等句。古人尊雲為神，將其提升至太陽神同等地位。白雲堪卧君，是俗世可望不可及的居住地。

背景：

母親一生中，承受的最重打擊，莫過於失去了生命中的至愛。頭一年小兒子走了，次年丈夫謝世。前天，2007年11月27日，父親過世仍在49天之內，母親失眠，久久不能入睡。凌晨，母親寫了一首七言絕句，牽動心弦。「夜半三更人未靜，徹夜輾轉難入眠。徊探枕邊人不見，涔涔涙水滿衿衫」。

昨晚今夜，我在夢中，連續夢見父親和母親，時而出現在重慶，時而出現在台灣，長江、嘉陵江、淡水河均在夢中，重慶是雙親1939年結婚的地方，巴蜀風情留下深刻印象。醒來，寫五律一首，以和母親詩句。

2007年11月29日寫於

洛杉磯

48：【採桑子】

華夏文化在越南，
枝脈相傳。
南海西岸，
沿岸都市如珠串。
海防西貢東京灣，
雲海連天。
紅河安南，
諒山北望鎮南關。
輕紗搖曳旗袍衫，
女士爭艷。
饕客至愛，
牛肉河粉加春捲。
荔枝榴蓮菠蘿蜜，
年年盛產。
徧地烽煙，
戰火摧殘三十年。
兩越一統體質變，
前景燦爛。
衆心成城，
東南亞洲力爭冠。
春風一夜吹鄉夢，
夢回鄕關。
鄉關何處，
急逐春風到堤岸。

註釋：

1，南海：南中國海。

2，沿岸都市：越南國土狹長，東臨南海，沿岸都市北起海防，南至芽莊，有如珍珠項鍊。

3，海防：越南北部的中央直轄市，越南第三大城，北部最大港口。

4，西貢：1976年更名為胡志明市，原越南共和國首都，越南第二大城，僅次於河內。

5，東京灣：Culf

of Tonkin，越南稱其為北部灣，為一封閉式海灣，中越兩國海上分界。

6，紅河：發源於中國龍虎山，流經雲南入中南半島，在越南北部灣出海。

7，安南：今越南，中國唐代在此設置安南都護府。

8，諒山：越南北部諒山省省會，距離首都河內130公里，邊境至中國大陸廣西壯族自治區的鎮南關，僅18公里。

9，菠蘿蜜：Jackfruit，是一種熱帶水果，一般重達5至20公斤。味甘，種子含豐富澱粉，可生食，亦可煮食，又稱水果皇后。

10，徧地烽煙：二次大戰結束後，1946年法國重返越南，胡志明領導的越南共産黨軍隊，向法軍展開全面攻擊，戰爭打了9年，法國與越共在日內瓦簽訂協議，越南劃分為南北兩越，越共在北越成立政府，南越成立自由民主的越南共和國。隨後越共繼續進攻南越，後由美軍接手抵抗，至1975年南越赤化，越戰前後打了30年。

11，堤岸：Cholon，位於西貢河西岸，越南最大的華人聚集地。

背景：

抗戰勝利後，內子還在幼兒時期，隨父母移民越南，於1971年到達台灣，兩年後曾回越南探親一個月，1975年4月30日，南北越統一，直至2010年，事隔35年，越南已非昔日越南，盼有機緣，再次重返越南故里追懷。

2010年4月30日，南北越統一35週年，寫於洛杉磯

49：【梅蘭芳香】

落磯歲寒雪中梅，
大雁展翅東南飛。
地峽山林蘭芬芳，
梅蘭兩地同時香。

註釋：

1，落磯：科羅拉多州丹佛之西落磯山麓。

2，大雁：天鵝類，又稱野鵝，在美加屬國家二級保護動物。大雁熱情十足，用叫聲鼓勵同伴飛行，寒冬避寒南方。

3，地峽：中美洲巴拿馬兩面臨海，兩面臨陸，這種地形稱為「地峽」。

4，山林：巴拿馬多山多熱帶雨林，山林內，隨處可見各類種野生蘭花。

5，梅蘭兩地：指落磯山麓的梅花，巴拿馬的蘭花。一在寒冬，一在熱帶山林，同時開花。

背景：

美國科羅拉多州落磯山麓，每年一月已是寒冬時節，大雪紛飛，梅花綻放。

同一時間，在其東南方，約1800公里的巴拿馬山林中，蘭花盛開。想起旅居巴拿馬時，與友人結伴操作獨木舟，入熱帶雨林，採擷蘭花的愉快心情。

2005年1月21日寫於

丹佛

50：【紅麈自在】

藍天白雲自在身，
生命太虛宇宙飛。
有緣生在紅塵內，
跳脫惑業轉輪迴。
年華俄頃一夢驚，
世事忘懷酌一斤。
千古興亡付一笑，
心寛恬淡一冰心。

註釋：

1，自在身：緣由聖嚴法師的「得心自在」，「心自在，身自在，身心自在，福慧自在」。身自在，指身體健康。心自在，指心理健全，進退沒有阻礙。

2，太虛：虛幻的境界，空虛寂寞的境地。

3，紅塵：繁華熱鬧的俗世。

4，惑業：佛家所說的煩惱，障礙。

5，輪迴：佛家所稱的生命輪轉，意思是衆生死了又生，生了又死，，生死不已。身亡之後靈魂輪轉，重新投胎成為另一人。這與基督教義所說的「生命永生」，意義上有所不同。

6，忘懷：利害得失不放在心裡。出自晉．陶淵明《五柳先生傳」。

7，酌一斤：開懷飲酒之意。

8，恬淡：《黃帝內經》第一篇「上古天真論」，恬淡虛無，精神內守。意思是，人要淡去名利聲色等慾望，煩惱自然就少了。

9，冰心：人品高潔，不熱衷榮利，心若懷冰。用「冰」來比喻「心」的純潔。

唐．王昌齡《芙蓉樓送辛漸》「洛陽親友如相問，一片冰心在玉壺」。

背景：

2009年1月間，洛杉磯華語廣播電台《紅麈自在》節目，從世界各大宗教教義的角度，來解析生命，有「佛的智慧，從宿命中解脫」一節，聽後有感抒懷。

2009年1月26日寫於洛杉磯

51：【冬至思鄉】

長夜漫漫雪飛揚，
寒風凜冽風鈴響。
銀色大地月光下，
冬至夜思念故鄉。

註釋：

1，冬至：二十四節氣中，「冬至」排二十二，也是八節日之一，稱為「冬節」，在陽曆12月21日至23日間，在北半球，冬至是一年中，夜晚最長的一天。

2，冬至詩詞：唐宋時期，多達兩百餘首，描述兩樣情，有正面陽光的，也有心生悲愁思念的。

唐．杜甫《冬至》「天時人事日相催，冬至陽生春又來。」，「年年至日長為客，忽忽窮愁泥剎人。」

背景：

久滯海外，時光荏苒，2008年冬至，人在科羅拉多州丹佛，大雪紛飛，銀色大地，讓人想到遠方的故郷親人。

52：【寂落洞庭】

千里瀟湘水明霞，
哀箏一曲弄湘江。
湖上畫舫難再尋，
漁舟唱晚成追想。
詠嘆不盡古今情，
綺麗風光覓何方。
遙祭湘娥雲遮月，
寂落洞庭是蒼涼。

註釋：

1，洞庭：洞庭湖，中國五大淡水湖之一，位於湖南省北部，面積2579平方公里，僅次於鄱陽湖。原為中國最大淡水湖，後因在湖區大量從事生産活動，水域大幅縮小。

2，瀟湘：湖南省代稱，瀟湘一詞始於西漢。湖南有湘、資、沅、澧四大河，均滙入洞庭湖。湖南省境內，最長的河流是湘江，流經衡陽、株洲、湘潭、長沙等大都市。

瀟：指湘江上游最大支流瀟水。

湘：指湘江。

瀟湘：瀟水和湘江的合稱。

3，湘娥：傳說中舜帝有兩位妃子，娥皇和女英，因哀舜帝駕崩，投江而死，化為湘江之神。

背景：

湖南省洞庭湖區過度開發，尤以湘江受重金屬污染最為嚴重，數千畝農田不能耕種，數十萬人飲水出現問題，魚獲量不及70年代前的三成。湘江洞庭今非昔比，令人痛心，往日綺麗風光已成追憶。

53：【月鉤畫樓】

七月初七五更天，
沉酣入夢亡弟還。
行雲流水琴聲起，
仙樂飄飄天上來。
上弦清月鉤畫樓，
餘音裊裊進窗台。
風采翩翩依舊在，
夫妻情深銀河邊。

註釋：

1，畫樓：雕飾華麗的樓閣。宋．李清照《浪淘沙》「簾外五更天，吹夢無蹤。畫樓重上與誰同」。

2，七月初七：指陰曆七月七日。中國民間傳說，喜鵲在銀河上搭橋，讓牛郎和織女在鵲橋上相會，又稱中國情人節。

3，上弦月：每月陰曆初七、初八兩日，月亮與太陽相距90度，月亮為半圓形，弦在上，弓背在右，成鉤狀。

背景：

2006年7月31日，也是陰暦的七月初七。今晨四時許，亡弟陳勇入夢來。風采翩翩，瀟灑挺拔，英俊依然，手持提琴，從天際飄來。夫妻情深，相會在銀河樓台。

2006年8月1日

於台北市

54：【春華縱逝】

楊柳絲絲綠，
桃花點點紅。
薔薇處處開，
蜂蝶翩翩舞。
滾滾溪水流，
蒼蒼春欲暮。
春顔稍縱逝，
寂落是離愁。

註釋：

1，春華：形容一個人正處於人生中，充滿青春活力的時段。歐陽修《玉春樓》「雪雲乍變春雲簇，漸覺年華堪送目」。

那是在逃難，孩子們卻少不更事，覺得像似旅行，母親和孩子們完全是一種截然不同的心情。

十月下旬，小船夜航在南中國海上，風平浪靜，月光皎潔，鯨豚相隨，鷗逐白雲，我們在屋頂上，臥仰天上的星星。

數十年後，我將這段陳年往事，用詩歌紀錄下來。

2008年9月2日，陰曆八月初三，母親84歲生日寫於洛杉磯

57：【舟渡關山】

沉沉孤舟渡關山，
悽悽漠江南岸邊。
聲聲雁鳴聲漸遠，
梗泛萍漂歧路難。
戴月披星過瓊州，
蒼梧儋耳南海中。
孤生茫茫嗟途窮，
懷憂長嘯天來風。

註釋：

1，漠江：漠陽江，位於廣東省陽江市城西，在北津港出南海。1949年10月，國共內戰「陽江戰役」，國軍在此潰敗，父親生死未卜。母親帶著孩子，搭乘之鐵殻小船，由廣州駛抵此處拋錨增補。

2，梗泛萍漂：比喻漂泊流離。

3，瓊州：瓊州海峽。小船由陽江開往湛江目的地，適逢粵系部隊叛變投共，小船不得其門而入，改經瓊州海峽，跨海轉赴海口。

4，蒼梧：海南島。蘇軾詩「蒼梧獨在天一方」。

5，儋耳：今海南省儋州市，蘇軾貶謪地。

6，嗟：悲歎之意。

7，途窮：喻走頭無路，處境困窘。

8，懷憂：憂思鬱結，心懷憂慮。

背景：

民國38年10月13日，廣州棄守，母親隻身帶著四個稚幼的孩子，搭上一艘小船，經陽江、湛江，輾轉到達海口。小船航行在南中國海上，狀況連連，危機四伏。

母親將當年情景和當時感受，給孩子們口述，我用文字來表達了這段歴史。

大時代戰亂下的兒女，命運多舛，但不畏艱難，用生命捍衛國家，見證歷史。國家的命運跟個人的命運息息相關，沒有國哪有家。

58：【點絳脣】

笛笙悠揚，
桂山獨秀桂林水。
凝睇佳人，
夢中彩雲飛。
腸斷訣別，
孤飛出紅麈。
卻來時，天上人間，
此夜幕簾垂。

註釋：

1，桂山獨秀：廣西桂林城內，山水掩映，峯林環繞，尤以桂山、獨秀二山最為著名。

2，桂林水：桂林有兩江，流經市區。一為灕江，一為桃花江，所謂「桂林山水甲天下」蓋其獨特不類他處也。

3，凝睇：注目而視。

4，訣別：天人永隔。

5，卻來時：恰巧之時，夢中甦醒之時。

6，幕簾垂：夜幕低垂，表示更顯孤寂。

背景：

父親辭世後近八個月，母親首次在夢中與父親相會於桂林，桂林是爸爸媽媽初識的地方，民國27年在此訂婚。

1世紀之災莫拉克，
2中南台灣心顫驚。
3惡水淹沒家園毀，
4八八水災天無情。
5河堤崩決不堪撃，
6溪河一夕變溝渠。
7百年國土水規劃，
8不敵一場豪大雨。
9金帥飯店頃刻倒，
10觸目驚心難思議。11與世隔絕小林村，
12一夕之間煙灰盡。
13阿里山路柔腸斷，
14美景不再高山青。
15災民無語問蒼天，
16苦難激發善人性。
17慈濟愛心滿天下，
18台灣災區救人急。
19國軍救難盡全力，
20官兵過勞急送醫。
21同袍災區深入行，
22徒手刨屍土石流。
23義消涉險送物資，
24生死不顧遭滅頂。
25空中救援惡天氣，
26機毀人亡留英名。
27醫師䕶士獻愛心，
28深山送藥救人命。
29佳暮英雄韌生命，
30搶險救災不具名。
31愛心媽媽齊動員，
32便當美食補體力。
33朝野救災感人心，
34台灣高度受尊敬。
35華人世界競捐輸，
36大陸援手兄弟情。
37溫暖舒適組合屋，
38安全可靠有信心。
39國際媒體齊讚揚，
40三十餘國送溫情。
41水利思維應改變，
42河川整治細心用。
43與水爭地河反撲，
44越域引水起疑竇。
45過度開發拼經濟，
46觀光景點處處有。
47營建管理弊端多，
48旅館飯店沙中起。
49心思挖盡愉選民，
50選舉拼命擺第一。
51民怨沸騰可理解，
52政府救災火速急。
53政客逮住好機會，
54有理無理無情批。
55天災降臨有原因，
56未雨綢繆搶先機。
57災後重建工作急，
58合情合理再批評。
59理性檢討真原因，
60環保執行要徹底。
61大氣變化應認清，
62與天共存自身起。
63外國勢力干內政，
64傲慢偏見又理曲。
65領導能力受挑戰，
66防災規劃受質疑。
67兩岸救災不對稱，
68策略執行好一比。
69大陸媒體挺政府，70台灣救災反被批。
71辭官負責展風範，
72救災機制速成立。
73錯誤決策不重複，
74不為選舉昩良心。
75長年沈痾細心除，
76盡心盡力愛人民。
77台灣局勢仍嚴峻，
78寄望政府更努力。
79永續經營不能停，
80風中雨中生信心。

註釋：

1，莫拉克颱風：民國98年8月8日，造成台灣世紀大水災。

9，金帥飯店：台東知本觀光飯店，八八水災被洪水沖毀，頃刻之間整楝倒塌。

11，小林村：高雄市甲仙區山地部落，八八水災時被滅村。

29，佳暮：屏東縣霧台鄉佳暮村，原住民部落。

71：辭官負責：民國97年5月20日，馬英九就任中華民國第12任總統，劉兆玄出任行政院長，次年9月10日內閣總辭，為八八水災負起政治責任。

背景：

綜合當時中外媒體報導，寫七言80句記述這段歷史。

2009年9月11日於

洛杉磯

62：【餞別】

雁行萬里山外山，
柳絲荷塘長亭邊。
流霞金樽離歌起，
此去重逢待何年。

註釋：

1，山外山：緣由李叔同《送別》「長亭外，古道邊，芳草碧連天，晚風拂柳，笛聲殘，夕陽山外山」。2，柳絲：柳與留諧音，絲與思諧音。古人常以「柳絲」表達送別之人，對離人的無限留念及相思。

3，長亭：宋．晏殊《踏莎行》「祖席離歌，長亭別宴，香塵已隔猶回面」，「無窮無盡是離愁，天涯地角尋思遍」。古人送別友人，常在長亭别宴。

4，流霞：中國神話中的仙酒。

5，金樽：精致的酒杯。

背景：

2008年美國房屋次貸風暴，掀起全球金融危機，中國大陸未受太多波及，反向海外招募人才。

四十年老友之子，在上海獲得一份待遇優渥的工作，成了海歸學者，二老隨子回鄉定居。相約在頗具歷史規模的杭廷頓圖書館公園內的蘇州庭園柳芳亭餞別，此行不知何年再能相見。

2009年10日6日

寫於洛杉磯

63：【彈指瞬間】

己亥秋初馬明潭，
書聲朗朗嵩亭邊。
振翼展風奔前程，
立業成家滿開懷。
後生可畏足堪慰，
根蒂緜延不絕年。
五十彈指一瞬間，
不歎惆悵讃當前。

註釋：

1，彈指：佛教中的一個時間量詞，出自於印度梵語

Acchata，常用來比喻時光的短暫。

2，己亥：民國48年(1958年)。

3，馬明潭：位於台北市文山區明興里，聯勤財務學校舊址。

4，嵩亭：立於財務學校校區山丘上，中華民國軍需界元老吳嵩慶將軍在此題匾。

5，後生可畏：出自《論語.子罕》「後生可畏，焉知來者之不如今也」。在此比喻後期同學每每都能超越前期，令人敬畏。

6，惆悵：出自《楚辭.九辯》，本期及後期同學晉升將軍者，已越30人，但亦有一路順風，或仕途不遂者。

背景：

民國48年秋，入財務學校六期就讀，彈指之間已有50年，同學籌備同學會活動，並出版刊物。囑提供文字以茲紀念，共襄盛舉。

2009年1月18日寫於

洛杉磯

64【月色朦朧】

朧朧彎月尋舊譜，
舊曲今唱往事多。
多少陳年生涯事，
盡在詞曲追憶中。
月落荷塘蛙聲下，
隔紗望月月朦朦。
猶記當年故鄉月，
此月彼月四地同。

註釋：

1，朦朧：指物體的樣子模糊。唐.來鵠〈寒食山館書情〉「蜀魄啼來春寂寞，楚魂吟後月朦朧」。

2，隔紗：隔著紗窗。元.倪瓚〈竹枝詞〉「長彈幽恨隔紗窗」。

3，月落河塘：緣自唐，張繼〈楓橋夜泊〉「月落烏啼霜滿天，江楓漁火對愁眠」。四地：上海、台北、巴拿馬、洛杉磯。

背景：

這夜月色朦朧，收聽華語廣播電台午夜節目，播放懷念老歌。由一首〈古月照今麈〉開始，接續〈月朦朧鳥朦朧〉、〈沒有月亮的晚上〉、〈在那銀色的月光下〉、〈月兒彎彎照九州〉等等。此景此情下，不禁勾起一些陳年往事，都與月亮有關。

1949年4月下旬，國共內戰上海失守前一個月，我們折返青島，在黃浦江十六舖客運碼頭上船，傳來一首江蘇民歌〈月兒彎彎照九州〉，曲調傷感。此民歌出自南宋高宗建炎年間（1127-1130），敘述民間離亂之苦。1952年屠光啓，在香港以此民歌編導電影，主題曲與影片名，同為〈月兒彎彎照九州〉，由梁樂音作曲，李雋青作詞。

1979年3月，我離開台灣前往巴拿馬7個月前，全家人到景美戲院看〈月朦朧鳥朦朧〉電影，長兒Anthony那年7歲，竟然能一字不差，沒有走音的唱出這首電影主題曲。〈月朦朧鳥朦朧〉1978年拍成電影，歌曲由瓊瑤作詞，古月作曲。

1992年5月，在巴拿馬運河風景區，舉辦華裔青年露營活動，向學員們教唱〈在那銀色的月光下〉。此曲源自俄羅斯民歌，1938年由作曲家王洛賓在新疆把這首曲子，改編為華語(國語)歌曲。

〈古月照今塵〉是1986年華僑歌手文章發表的專輯兼主打歌曲。由譚健常作曲，小軒作詞，文章主唱。「一部春秋史，千年孤臣淚。成敗難長久，興亡轉瞬間」句句扣人心弦。

不由得，也想起巴拿馬戰爭，1989年12月20日，美軍攻打巴拿馬，無數飛彈掠空而過，砲聲隆隆，散光彈照亮了一個沒有月亮的晚上，睹見戰爭整個過程，終生難忘。

歌曲〈沒有月亮的晚上〉，係香港電影《驚魂記》的插曲，沈華作詞，綦湘棠作曲。2009年9月21日寫於

洛杉磯

65：【懷殤】

憶當年
寺院梵音鐘曉，
更漏盡
寒燈晦烟爐銷。
生死別
茫茫六十秋涼，
情懷殤
他日重溫晨光。

註釋：

1，殤：沒有到成年就夭亡。例如殤折，殤夭。

2，梵音：佛的聲音。

3，鐘曉：清晨的鐘聲。

4，更漏：用滴漏方法計時的器具，古人夜晚看漏刻而知時間。曹雪芹《紅樓夢》「展不開眉頭，挨不明更漏」。

5，寒燈晦烟爐銷：緣自李商隠《憶住一師》「烟爐銷盡寒燈晦，童子開門雪滿松」。整句意為，更漏水已滴盡，寒夜燈燭已成灰，烟爐的香也燒完。

背景：

室外奇寒，夜讀李商隠《憶住一師》，今日又是二弟的生日，想起與他兒時相處的日子。二弟昌嚴，排行第五，生於1950年1月13日，卒於1952年7月4日，因病殤折，在世僅924天。1951年秋冬之際，我唸小學六年級，家住苗栗縣苗栗鎮中苗里，每逢假日一大早，就揹著他到離家不遠的一座寺院中遊玩。該寺院駐有數名官兵，看守電話總機，父親時任通信營少校副營長。二弟去世迄今已55年，不知此時他在何方。

2007年1月13日晚

寫於丹佛

【寫在律韻情深
詩詞選集之後】

2020年歲序庚子，COVID-19肺炎肆虐全球，造成人類生活上翻天覆地的改變，世界各地執行嚴格管控，居家隔離。

我深居庭院，足未出戶逾一年之久，是人生中一次艱鉅的生活考驗。

2021辛丑年春節過後，百無聊賴，有了整理十年前費時三年寫成的詩詞草稿，做一番修飾整理的念頭。

自2月15日正月初四開始，每日整理一至二首，至4月17日，在近80首中，篩選出65首，約二萬四千字，完成第一階段的詩作，自認還有生命的餘輝，想繼續書寫，給人生留下一點色彩。

我三歲聽詩，五歲讀詩，直到五十歲才深入去了解詩，六十歲才開始寫詩，全是對詩詞的喜愛，也得自於先慈的啓蒙。母親也有一些極少數的幾首詩作，這是她的心泉之歌，我用了一點時間整理出來，作為夲詩詞集的附錄。詩詞創作，不僅發揮了中國文字的音樂潛能，所謂詩中有歌，歌中有詩。也展現出抒情傳統的魅力。

2021年4月19日寫於

洛杉磯

【附錄】

母親學歷不高，抗戰時期在湖南祁陽，僅讀到初中二年級。背着外婆讀「紅樓夢」和「西廂記」，並且讀完「全唐詩」，「水滸傳」和「三國演義」，可說是一位文學愛好者。到了台灣，興之所至寫了一些小詩，但不知流落何方。

母親有一些詩的佳作，都寫在民國90年家遷南港國宅之後。

按時序分列：

1，【庭院深處】

簡居木屋精舍裡，
庭院深處一樂天。
鳥語花香景宜人，
四季鮮果喜採擷。
水塘魚池相對映，
後庭又見小農軒。
荷鋤養花逍遙在，
吟詩弄文似神仙。

註釋：

樂天：樂天知命

背景：

2003年5月，父母親曾來美探望子女，適逢我搬遷新居，父母親對這裡的居家環境，留下美好記憶。回台後，母親寫七律一首如上。

2，【天賜姻緣】

桂林山水初相識，
遵母宜家結姻緣。
抗戰內戰飄泊行，
生活貧困不畏艱。
相依相偎六八年，
奈何離我獨神仙。
兒孫滿堂雖感足，
愁緒萬縷不成眠。

註釋：

六八年：父母親在桂林相識，民國28年在重慶結婚，民國96年父親在台北去世，夫妻恩愛情深68年。

背景：

父親於民國96年10月9日去世，母親一生中的摯愛走了。母親處孤室而淒愴，睹遺物而神傷。12月22日冬至夜，她寫了這首七律悼亡詩。

3，【虔求聖母】

聖母亭前站，
慈光眼前顯。
閉目虔誠求，
家人永平安。

背景：

台北市延吉街天主教聖母顯靈聖牌堂，堂院內矗立一尊石雕聖母像，栩栩如生，慈光四射。

母親帶領家人至此彌撒禮拜，已有30年，進堂前援例立於聖母像前默禱。

這一天寒風細雨，是父親去世後首次進堂禮拜，母親悲從中來，淚流滿面。這夜母親作了一首五絕詩，留下了這段記憶。

4，【思思念念】

今年除夕眸潸漣，
天地寂寂心悽然。
萬千悲緒千斤重，
思思念念淚滿衫。
昔日情景清䀿現，
怎奈人隔萬重天。
午夜寄盼夢中見，
竟是無語問蒼天。

背景：

民國97年2月6日，適逢丁亥年隂曆除夕，父親去世已有四個月。

這是自民國45年連續兩年，父親擔任部隊主管，與同袍弟兄在營過年外，52年來首次不見父親在家，與家人共度除夕。母親仍然不能走出喪夫之痛，除夕夜寫了以上詩句。

6，【寄不出的簡訊】

2010年10月9日，是爸爸媽媽結婚71週年紀念日，母親給父親寫了一封「寄不出的簡訊」：
老伴，今天是我倆結婚七十一週年紀念，也是你離開家人遠行的日子。你就那麼無憂無慮瀟灑地走了，一轉眼就三年了。
在這思念的日子裡，我已經從悲痛中走了出來，因為我知道，你已經伴隨在天父的身邊，快樂愉悅地生活著，我好為你高興。等我走到人生旅途的盡頭時，我們再碰面吧。
思念你的老伴
民國99年10月9日
(律韻情深詩詞選輯
全章完）

简介由 AI（Claude）译自英文，尚未经作者审阅。

作者简介

陈昌智先生，1940年7月7日生，祖籍中国河南省南阳。1962年毕业于国防部联合勤务总司令部财务学校，曾任职于联勤总部财务署、救国团基隆市及台北市团委会，以及巴拿马中文报纸《共和报》。陈先生是知名的报纸编辑，著有多部中文作品。

本书收录作者以中国传统格律创作的诗词。陈先生自幼受父母与家学熏陶，对诗词有浓厚兴趣。他自1980年代起即是卓有成就的作家与报纸编辑，但直到世纪之交、年届六十，才开始认真写诗。美国碧波关怀地球人文协会很荣幸提供平台，出版陈先生的第一部诗集，以纪念他挚爱的母亲。书末并附上他母亲的几首诗作与短文。

本文保留原文的繁体字。

詩詞之路匍匐行(序）
【春入草原】
2：【四月瑞雪】
3：【霎那之間】
4：【遙望鄉關】
5：【巴拿馬運河】
6：【小城農舍】
7：【年華流失】
8：【山中夜宿】
9：【漫步山林】
10：【大峽谷】
11：【綺夢桃源】
12：【虞美人】
13：【訴衷情】
14：【法雲寺】
15：【詠鴉】
16：【卜算子】
17：【逐夢山湖】
18：【老樹吟】
19：【寂夜簫箏】
20：【香格里拉】
21：【環球影城】
22：【迪斯尼樂園】
23：【兩地情懷】
24：【滿園葱蘢】
25：【棋如人生】
26：【生命永恆】
27：【傷離情懷】
28：【離思】
29：【觀雨】
30：【如夢令】
31：【訴衷情】
32：【桂芳】
33：【薄倖】
34：【情痴】
35：【採桑子】
36：【世博會開幕】
37：【恬淡浮生】
38：【蓮花】
39：【昨夜今晨】
40：【不待年芳】
41：【蝶飛天上】
42：【月照離人】
43：【鑽石良緣】
44：【巨星殞落】流行天王𠎀克森，
45：【浮雲生涯】
46：【卜算子】
47：【君臥白雲】
48：【採桑子】
49：【梅蘭芳香】
50：【紅麈自在】
51：【冬至思鄉】
52：【寂落洞庭】
53：【月鉤畫樓】
54：【春華縱逝】
55：【惜花花殘】
56：【夜航南海】
57：【舟渡關山】
58：【點絳脣】
59：【滿江紅】
60：【蘇幕遮】
61：【八八水災】
62：【餞別】
63：【彈指瞬間】
64【月色朦朧】
65：【懷殤】
【寫在律韻情深詩詞選集之後】
【附錄】
1，【庭院深處】
2，【天賜姻緣】
3，【虔求聖母】
4，【思思念念】
6，【寄不出的簡訊】

詩詞之路匍匐行(序）

我對詩詞的愛好，數十年如一日。詩的種子埋在地下已有多時，總想有一天能有作品出現，讓它穿破地表迎向陽光。

1979年10月，我遠赴中美洲巴拿馬，出任一間僑報的編輯，外行人做了內行事，編輯撰寫兼行政，一待就是十九年，自嘲為蘇武牧羊。

2009年9月，我因心梗做了搭橋手術，醫囑靜心療養，詩作暫告一段落。往後各年，偶有即興之作。

2013年1月31日癸巳年陰曆除夕，寫了一首「除夕作」，表達當時的心情曰：客鄉除夜有溫暖，樽前圍爐閤家歡。樂天知命心隨缘，豁然達觀又一年。

完成這首「除夕作」後，專注散文書寫。詩詞原稿封塵至今，日前興致盎然，翻閲再謮。

中國自古以來就是詩的國度，也是國人身分的文化符號。幸得詩緣，自勉潛心修練，能夠續筆提作，用寧謐的心境，詩筆出更廣闊的生活領域。

感恩母親為詩集取名為「律韻情深」，𧫴以此文作為前頭語，並慰先慈在天安息。

2021年2月11日

庚子年除夕於洛杉磯(3）

【春入草原】

春入草原金雀花
近徑遠山映斜陽
鴻雁偎倚湖邊柳
浮雲輕風落水鄕

註釋：

1，金雀花是一種黃色小花，每年春天見於落磯山脈。2，「鴻雁」二字原是詩經小雅的篇名，比喻戰亂中流離的災民。

背景：

2：【四月瑞雪】

落磯山脈峰峰連，
四月瑞雪飄草原。
大地銀色碧雲天，
冬去春來慶豐年。

詮釋：

落磯山（Rock Mountains)是美洲西部主要山脈，北起加拿大不列顛哥倫比亞省，縱貫美國西部至新墨西哥州，海拔4389公尺，綿延4800公里。

背景：

2006年春，旅次科羅拉多州丹佛落磯山麓，生平首見四月飄雪。綠茵草原初綻之時，又見銀色大地，是一次驚喜的邂逅。

丹佛農民相傳，每逢四月雪，該年必是豐年。

3：【霎那之間】

月矇銀花飛，
猶似雲霧來。
霎時一瞬間，
山頭一夜白。

背景：

2006年4月，旅次科州丹佛山居，品茗夜讀曹操《短歌行》，首四句「對酒當歌，人生幾何。譬如朝露，去日苦多。」慨嘆人生的短促和年華的消失。

該夜月矇之中雪花飄飛，瞬間一夜山頭皚白。有感而發，以雪景變化譬喻人生。

4：【遙望鄉關】

大雁比翼飛南方，
欲託錦書至邊鄕。
邊鄕當年千索事，
紙短情長訴難詳。
遙望鄉關五千里，
物是人非難思量。
回首僑鄉十九年，
自喻蘇武在北疆。

註釋：

1，大雁：鴻雁的俗稱，隨季節變更而遷移，每年來去定時，古代通信不便，常透過大雁傳遞書信。

2，錦書：即書信。

3，丹佛至巴拿馬相距4249公里。

背景：

繼2006年4月之後，2007年2月初與妻再度去丹佛，與Anderson共渡春節，青山、綠茵、草原、小湖、步道，景物依舊。

巴拿馬風物人情，常懸吾心。寫七律一首，以茲追憶。

5：【巴拿馬運河】

註釋：

1，運河：橫跨巴拿馬地峽，連接太平洋及大西洋兩岸，全長82公里，世界航運要道之一，建成於1914年8月15日。

2，水閘：運河與海平面高低落差20公尺，船隻通過須以水閘控制水位。

3，鐵牛：水閘堤上的電動拖車，俗稱「電騾子」，船隻過水閘時，由鐵牛牽引。

背景：

6：【小城農舍】

背景：

2009年春末夏初，曾仿宋詞行香子，譜詞一首，名「小城農舍」以抒情懷。

7：【年華流失】

猶記陽明春曉時，
淡江浦岸點歸航。
碧湖堤畔長亭柳，
南海植園荷爭香。
神采飛揚玉樹風，
娉娉裊裊蔻年華。
年華流失一瞬間，
憑欄悵天望斜陽。

詮釋：

1，陽明：指陽明山。2，淡江：淡水河。3，碧湖：內湖。4，南海植園：南海路植物園。

背景：

今夜洛杉磯華語電台，播放國語經典歌曲，一首「台北的天空」，把我引進了時光隧道。

1985年3月，歌手王芷蕾以全新時尚詮䆁這首歌曲，造成轟動。反映1980年代，海外遊子對台北的記憶與鄉愁。

使我思想起，我在台北與同事，工作、生活、學習在一起的那段青澀歲月。

人生不能留白，補上這些文字，可供追憶。原詩寫於2010年7月，時年七十。

8：【山中夜宿】

浮雲深處一木屋，
參天古樹山徑中。
潾泉潺潺青石上，
月伴楓林遍山紅。
幽谷千仞傳瀑聲，
山鷹沉睡勁蒼松。
尋訪山中安禪翁，
秉燭蠟盡語破空。

註釋：

安禪：佛家語，僧人坐禪時，心身晏然入於禪境。

背景：

山似鷄冠，故名鷄冠山，海拔1546公尺，有公路闢至半山腰，居民或訪客，車輛均須集中停放在山間停車場內，再由步道上山，行約十分鐘，可達小屋。

9：【漫步山林】

朝露林中見，
風搖霧霑衿。
濛濛山徑步履輕，
何處飛來
黃雀枝頭啼。
谷中幽蘭香，
拂面曉氣清。
雲湧嵐起松崖上，
雁飛青天
行行掠空鳴。

背景：

繼2008年10月之後，2010年8月，再次造訪洛杉磯東北鷄冠山，同樣晚宿山中。

次晨，山中雲霧繚繞，如置身仙境。興致所至，漫步山林，觀晨露，沐輕風，聞鳥鳴。不知霧裡雲深處，有緣身在此山中。

10：【大峽谷】

峽谷曙光紫氣升，
勁柏蒼松一柱天。
飛瀑千仞九霄來，
急湍驚濤拍裂岸。
百鳥回巢傳谷音，
雷霆萬鈞光電閃。
萬籟俱寂觀流星，
深谷千丈處處險。

註釋：

背景：

11：【綺夢桃源】

時隔半世紀，兩岸朝向「互信互助，共創雙贏」目標奮鬥。當年戰地生活，常在夢中出現。夢醒，不知身在何處？

明朝時，金門稱浯州，其形似金錠，又扼閩南門戶，清初更名為金門。

上則訴衷情填詞，寫於2008年4月17日於洛杉磯。

14：【法雲寺】

註釋：

1，法雲寺：位於台灣苗栗縣大湖鄕觀音山上，海拔901公尺，台灣佛教四大法派之一的法雲寺派。2，裊煙：繚繞的白雲。3，邐迤：曲折綿延。

背景：

高中同學謝九齡，夫婦兩人都是健行登山會的會員，台灣各大山嶽都有兩人足跡。

前年重陽，夫妻兩人登法雲寺禮佛，寄遊記一篇，追憶當年同遊情景。心有所感，寫「法雲寺」一首抒懷。詩作寫於2012年10月。

15：【詠鴉】

鴉目敏鋭覓食準，
核桃樹茂果纍纍。
味美殼堅不得食，
騰空拋果果裂碎。

註釋：

1，鴉：又稱烏鴉，屬脊椎動物鳥綱，雀形目。是除了靈長類外，最聰明的動物，世界五大洲均有牠的棲息地。

烏鴉喝水的故事，告誡人們，遇到困難的時候，要善於思考，再大的困難也會迎刃而解。

2，核桃：又稱胡桃，原產西南亞洲。樹高葉茂，可達30公尺，果實是核果，圓形似桃，是堅果中的佼佼者。

背景：

16：【卜算子】

兒在搖籃啼，
娘在籃邊急。
兒娘情深心連心，
終解啼原因。
喧嚷侵兒眠，
調光滅雜音。
阿娘低吟搖籃曲，
安睡到天明。

背景：

2009年4月，德國影片「琴戀克拉拉」(Beloved Clara)，在世界各地上映，佳評不斷。

這是一部揭露德國三大音樂家舒曼(Schumann 1810-1856)，克拉拉(Clara Schumann1918-1896)，布拉姆斯（Brahms 1833-1897)三者之間的愛情故事片。

片中有一首布拉姆斯作品49之4的搖籃曲，是他兩百多首歌曲中最受歡迎的一首。

布拉姆斯獨身至終，能夠寫出這樣一首柔美且富感情的搖籃曲，令人激賞。是他在舒曼家中，為哄舒曼的女兒入睡時，彈出的作品。

2009年6月，我們一家人為長兒Anthony慶生，聊起這部影片和這首歌曲，以及兒時睡搖籃的往事。有感而發，寫下這首「卜算子」。

17：【逐夢山湖】

雲山縹緲無盡處，
山湖雲霧長相守。
蜿蜒山徑霧中行，
裊繞煙波湖上浮。
崇山擁湖湖擁山，
山在靄靄彩雲間。
湖翠隱現仙女羅，
情景夢回茵夢湖。

註釋：

背景：

2006年5月，遊南達科他州州立公園蘇文湖，車在山中晨霧中行駛。情景恍如中年讀屈原《九歌》，青澀年代，讀小說「茵夢湖」時的那份心境。

18：【老樹吟】

聳立挺拔一梧桐，
宿露餐風庭院中。
綠意盎然佇百鳥，
葉茂枝壯年年豐。
滄桑歲月一甲子，
老木蒼勁前人功。
秋來落葉添蕭瑟，
蠟盡歲寒盼東風。

背景：

居家後院有一棵美洲梧桐，係落葉喬木，高近四公尺，樹齢已越六十年。

每年三月吐新芽，五至九月綠葉成蔭，十月樹葉由綠轉黃，冬來葉落。

無論春夏秋冬，我常佇立凝望這棵老樹，感嘆人生，翩然而來，倏然而去，不禁落寂不已，而且還有一番期待。

19：【寂夜簫箏】

月明夜靜霜滿天，
四更箏弦撩樂來。
風雲飄浮簫聲起，
沉寂夜空傳天籟。
孤燭暗晦煙灰燼，
鷄鳴輕雷五更天。
旭日晨曦東升時，
箏簫默然斷腸哀。

註釋：

1，四更：清晨一時至三時。2，輕雷：車輛走動聲。

背景：

芳鄰馮老先生，年近八十，畢業於福建音專，善於簫管。女兒不遑多讓，精於箏弦。

臘月十五，月圓之時，四更隔牆傳來箏簫之聲。去年此夜此時，馮老妻子去世，欲斷無腸，更盡離觴。以簫箏之樂，點燭捻香拜祭。

寫於2007年1月23日，旅次丹佛。

20：【香格里拉】

註釋：

背景：

21：【環球影城】

註釋：

環球影城：Universal Studios Hollywood，美國加州洛杉磯娛樂之都，滙集多項好萊塢電影製作設施，給遊客帶來無限歡樂感受。

背景：

在台灣看了不少好萊塢膾炙人口的名片，期盼機緣能至好萊塢圓夢一遊，沒想到家遷洛杉磯，2008年還購得年票，一年之內全家三次𣈱遊好萊塢。

22：【迪斯尼樂園】

註釋：

迪斯尼樂園：Disneyland Park，又稱加州迪斯尼樂園，位於美國加州安納罕市。面積0．524平方公里，1955年開園，是世界第一個迪斯尼樂園。

背景：

23：【兩地情懷】

註釋：

背景：

僑居海外40年，入鄉隨俗，已把僑鄉當故鄉。親不親，故鄉人。美不美，故鄉水。常念故鄉人和水。

僑居地有好山，有好水，兩地情懷，難割難捨。（仿宋詞憶江南，填「兩地情懷」一首，2009年3月3日於洛杉磯）

24：【滿園葱蘢】

薰衣朵朵似紫晶，
薔薇叢叢如白雪。
滿園葱蘢添生機，
蜂擁蝶聚舞輕風。
簾捲花香無重數，
鸝啼鵲鳴勁歌中。
星光熠熠月懸空，
擷枝薰衣伴入夢。

註釋：

背景：

25：【棋如人生】

棋如人生人如棋，
棋子落錯局勢定。
勁風角弓渡楚河，
越陣漢界衝鋒起。
攻城掠地窮其力，
人生成敗棋一局。
玄玄經內藏天地，
乾坤均在方寸裡。

註釋：

背景：

隨後有感，寫《棋如人生》一首。

2008年9月於洛杉磯

26：【生命永恆】

天涯踏盡紅塵中，
人生彈指空頭轉。
行而不歸失家人，
生命天地委和間。
欲乘清風歸玉宇，
銀河瓊樓綺窗開。
重生須在曠野裡，
神國之路要試煉。

註釋：

1，長亭：陽明山長亭。2，陽明：陽明山。3，彩牋：幅小精美的信紙。

背景：

2011年11月，秋遊洛杉磯東北，海拔2100公尺的聖伯納汀諾國家森林公園，正是楓葉紅紅之時。

夜讀賞楓唐宋詩詞：宋．朱淑真《對景漫成》「楓葉醉紅秋色里，兩三行雁夕陽中。」

唐．魚玄機《江陵愁望有寄》「憶君心似西江水，日夜東流無歇時。」

宋．寇準《江上》「空江極目望不盡，楓葉半紅人未歸。」

不禁想起30餘年前的一段往事，填「訴衷情」一首抒懷。

2011年11月11日

於洛杉磯

32：【桂芳】

雲輕氣爽飄來香，
滿樹桂花溪橋旁。
清風吹落粟蕊黃，
疑是秋雨痴芬芳。

註釋：

粟蕊黃：粟一般叫「小米」，其蕊為黃色。宋．洪邁《桂花》有「風流直欲占秋光，葉底深藏粟蕊花。」詩句。粟蕊黃，指桂花的花蕾。

背景：

2007年10月返台探親，與家人同遊南港茶山畚箕湖，擇山林步道，行至桂花林欣賞桂花。

見一小河曲橋旁，風吹桂花，花落溪中，好一番「桂花雨」景色，讓人留連忘返。

次月返回洛杉磯寓所，芳鄰李老邀品嚐其烘焙之桂花茶，茶香四溢，馥郁芬芳，暢談返台登山欣賞桂花的怡情。

2007年11月15日寫於洛杉磯

33：【薄倖】

註釋：

1，唐朝中葉詩人元稹，為悼念亡妻，曾作《離思》五首，用滄海、巫山比喻夫妻恩愛。

3，司馬相如係西漢時期天才橫溢的大文豪，看完其妻卓文君作的一首《白頭吟》後，十分感動，打消納妾念頭。

4，韓劇大長今，雖係電視劇，但並非子虛烏有。劇中男主角閔政浩與醫女大長今的愛情故事，給了「天下有情人終成眷屬」一個最佳的註解。

5，漢武帝欲納阿嬌為妾，以金屋藏之，最終妾失容顏，淪為糟糠。

6，元曲《西廂記》描述書生張君瑞與相國之女崔鶯鶯，衝破封建約束，終成眷屬。兩人以皓月為證，表達對愛情的忠貞。

背景：

2009年7月23日寫於

洛杉磯

34：【情痴】

背景：

兩個家庭由台灣移民來美，一戶姓曲是我同學，一戶姓柳是我摯友。曲家長子和柳家次女，是洛杉磯帕薩廸那高中同窗，又是一對青春洋溢的情侶。

2008年曲同學考入洛杉磯加州大學（UCLA)，柳同學進入約翰霍普金斯大學醫學院（JHU，馬里蘭州巴爾的摩市）。

在一次旅遊途中，柳同學不幸車禍身亡，曲同學悲痛至極，一度赴台出家修行，差點成了另一位李叔同。

老曲講出了這段動人戀情，歎息地說出：一個人一生之中，曾經去愛過一個人，或者曾經被一個人愛過，都是一種幸福。

35：【採桑子】

六十年歲月滄桑，
舊曲重唱。
歌聲往事，
惜嘆流芳易成傷。
猶似當年情景在，
寸寸柔腸。
哽咽曲斷，
奈何這世事無常。

註釋：

六十年歳月：胞弟英年辭世（1945-2006)享年六十一，(未滿六十歲稱得年)。

背景：

此間華語廣播電台「懷舊曲憶往事」節目，頗受中老年人喜愛。在懷念老歌聲中，往事一幕幕浮現眼前。

2009年7月22日

寫於洛杉磯

36：【世博會開幕】

註釋：

1，世博會：World Expo

世界博覽會，又稱萬國博覽會。首屆世博會於1851年(清咸豐元年)，在英國倫敦海德公園水晶宮舉行。

2，浦江：上海黃浦江。

4，一百五九年：

41屆上海世博會，於2010年4月30日晚間，在上海世博文化中心舉行，由5日1日至10月31日，展期半年。距離首屆倫敦世博會相隔159年。

背景：

中國大陸繼2008年北京奧運會之後，2010年上海又舉辦了一屆亮麗全球的世界博覽會。開幕日，在洛杉磯收視實況轉播，心有所感。

2010年5月1日寫於

洛杉磯

37：【恬淡浮生】

註釋：

1，恬淡：心境安然淡泊，出自《莊子．天道》，「夫虛靜恬淡，寂漠無為者，天地之平，而道德之至。」

2，浮生：虛浮無定的人生，出自《莊子．刻意》，「其生若浮，其死若休。」

4，嵬坡：即馬嵬坡，或馬嵬關。唐玄宗時，發生安史之亂，玄宗奔蜀途中，隨行將士要求賜死楊妃，玄宗不得已，命高力士縊死貴妃於此。

背景：

2009年10月25日

寫於洛杉磯寓所

38：【蓮花】

註釋：

宋．周敦頤「愛蓮說」一文：「蓮之出淤泥而不染，蓮，花之君子者也」，贊美蓮花像君子一樣，有潔生自好的美德。

背景：

五月𥚃，台灣台南白河鎮的蓮花，含苞待放，六至八月盛開。每到此時，總會想起當年在白河，步履蓮田，看花朵盛開，聞淡淡蓮香，讓人心曠神怡。

吾妻將蓮花命名為「母親花」，因蓮花結蓮子，蓮子芯澀苦，有如母親含辛茹苦，母心連子，愛子連心苦透心。

2009年5月10日

母親節於洛杉磯

39：【昨夜今晨】

昨夜秋楓霑寒露，
濛濛霧重晚來風。
䦨干倚處觀玉鉤，
月前雙雁掠飛空。
今晨徐風搖芳樹，
晨曦未起鳥驚夢。
小園石徑獨徘徊，
綠樹婆娑曉氣濃。

註釋：

1，玉鉤：喻新月，出現在陰曆初一，出自《楚辭》。

2，芳樹：泛指花木，三國魏．阮籍《詠懷》，「芳樹垂綠葉，清雲自逶迤」。

背景：

中秋過後的洛杉磯，楓葉漸紅，隂曆十月初一，新月映秋楓，霧重來風，倚欄仰空，見雙雁掠過。

次晨清風徐徐，搖動花樹，晨曦中鳥鳴不絕於耳，叫醒了睡夢。獨自徘徊在小園石徑，享受那綠樹婆娑吹來的新鮮空氣。

2009年11月18日

於洛杉磯

40：【不待年芳】

勁枝蔓曲折，
茉莉凋盡香。
泣血侵斷腸，
不待作年芳。

註釋：

1，斷腸：悲傷至極點。元．馬致遠《天淨沙．秋思》「枯藤老樹昏鴉，小橋流水人家，古道西風瘦馬。夕陽西下，斷腸人在天涯。」

2，年芳：美好的時光，或美好的春色。唐．李商隱《判春》「一桃復一李，井上占年芳。」

背景：

2007年2月7日

寫於丹佛

41：【蝶飛天上】

2009年10月9日，父母親結婚70週年於洛杉磯

44：【巨星殞落】流行天王𠎀克森，

盛年驟逝嘆惜深。
高難舞步姿優美，
歌喉風迷遍傳媒。
笑容可掬存臉頰，
超越種族一家親。
夢幻莊園留追憶，
媲美貓王勝黛妃。

註釋：

2，貓王：艾維斯．普里斯萊(Elvis Presley 1935年1月8日-1977年8月16日)美國搖滾樂歌手，電影演員。

4，夢幻莊園(Neverland Ranch)園內景觀設施猶如其名，是麥可與孩子們的快樂天堂，位於加州聖巴巴拉縣Losolivos市郊。

2009年7月7日麥可追思會，寫於實況轉播電視機前。

45：【浮雲生涯】

榮華富貴似浮雲，
辭別故里赴他鄉。
編撰生涯十九年，
難為當年辦報郎。

註釋：

1，浮雲：天空飄浮的雲，《楚辭．宋玉．九辯》「塊獨守此無澤兮，仰浮雲而永歏」，比喻事物不足掛心。

2，生涯：指一個人經歷過的人生，《莊子．養生主》「吾生也有涯，而知也無涯」。

背景：

有人說「要想害一個人，就讓他去辦報紙」，我卻欣然面對，走了過來。

2009年7月10日寫於

48：【採桑子】

註釋：

1，南海：南中國海。

2，沿岸都市：越南國土狹長，東臨南海，沿岸都市北起海防，南至芽莊，有如珍珠項鍊。

3，海防：越南北部的中央直轄市，越南第三大城，北部最大港口。

4，西貢：1976年更名為胡志明市，原越南共和國首都，越南第二大城，僅次於河內。

5，東京灣：Culf

of Tonkin，越南稱其為北部灣，為一封閉式海灣，中越兩國海上分界。

6，紅河：發源於中國龍虎山，流經雲南入中南半島，在越南北部灣出海。

7，安南：今越南，中國唐代在此設置安南都護府。

8，諒山：越南北部諒山省省會，距離首都河內130公里，邊境至中國大陸廣西壯族自治區的鎮南關，僅18公里。

9，菠蘿蜜：Jackfruit，是一種熱帶水果，一般重達5至20公斤。味甘，種子含豐富澱粉，可生食，亦可煮食，又稱水果皇后。

11，堤岸：Cholon，位於西貢河西岸，越南最大的華人聚集地。

背景：

2010年4月30日，南北越統一35週年，寫於洛杉磯

49：【梅蘭芳香】

落磯歲寒雪中梅，
大雁展翅東南飛。
地峽山林蘭芬芳，
梅蘭兩地同時香。

註釋：

1，落磯：科羅拉多州丹佛之西落磯山麓。

2，大雁：天鵝類，又稱野鵝，在美加屬國家二級保護動物。大雁熱情十足，用叫聲鼓勵同伴飛行，寒冬避寒南方。

3，地峽：中美洲巴拿馬兩面臨海，兩面臨陸，這種地形稱為「地峽」。

4，山林：巴拿馬多山多熱帶雨林，山林內，隨處可見各類種野生蘭花。

5，梅蘭兩地：指落磯山麓的梅花，巴拿馬的蘭花。一在寒冬，一在熱帶山林，同時開花。

背景：

美國科羅拉多州落磯山麓，每年一月已是寒冬時節，大雪紛飛，梅花綻放。

同一時間，在其東南方，約1800公里的巴拿馬山林中，蘭花盛開。想起旅居巴拿馬時，與友人結伴操作獨木舟，入熱帶雨林，採擷蘭花的愉快心情。

2005年1月21日寫於

丹佛

50：【紅麈自在】

藍天白雲自在身，
生命太虛宇宙飛。
有緣生在紅塵內，
跳脫惑業轉輪迴。
年華俄頃一夢驚，
世事忘懷酌一斤。
千古興亡付一笑，
心寛恬淡一冰心。

註釋：

1，自在身：緣由聖嚴法師的「得心自在」，「心自在，身自在，身心自在，福慧自在」。身自在，指身體健康。心自在，指心理健全，進退沒有阻礙。

2，太虛：虛幻的境界，空虛寂寞的境地。

3，紅塵：繁華熱鬧的俗世。

4，惑業：佛家所說的煩惱，障礙。

6，忘懷：利害得失不放在心裡。出自晉．陶淵明《五柳先生傳」。

7，酌一斤：開懷飲酒之意。

8，恬淡：《黃帝內經》第一篇「上古天真論」，恬淡虛無，精神內守。意思是，人要淡去名利聲色等慾望，煩惱自然就少了。

9，冰心：人品高潔，不熱衷榮利，心若懷冰。用「冰」來比喻「心」的純潔。

唐．王昌齡《芙蓉樓送辛漸》「洛陽親友如相問，一片冰心在玉壺」。

背景：

背景：

2006年8月1日

於台北市

54：【春華縱逝】

楊柳絲絲綠，
桃花點點紅。
薔薇處處開，
蜂蝶翩翩舞。
滾滾溪水流，
蒼蒼春欲暮。
春顔稍縱逝，
寂落是離愁。

註釋：

1，春華：形容一個人正處於人生中，充滿青春活力的時段。歐陽修《玉春樓》「雪雲乍變春雲簇，漸覺年華堪送目」。

2，縱逝：稍縱即逝之意，稍微一放鬆就消失了。蘇軾《谷偃竹記》「振筆直遂，以追其所見，如兔起鶻落，少縱則逝矣」。

背景：

2007年5月15日

於洛杉磯

55：【惜花花殘】

紅薔薰衣開，
蜂蝶花汁採。
驟雨壓花殘，
蜂蝶不再來。

註釋：

1，惜花花殘：緣自元．元好問《玉樓春》「惜花無汁又花殘」。2，紅薔：紅色的薔薇。3，薫衣：薫衣草。

背景：

春天加州的陽光燦爛，院子裡的各種花卉，奔放盛開，美麗迷人，引來許多蜜蜂蝴蝶，採取花汁。昨夜一場急風驟雨，吹得樹歪花落，不見蜂蝶再來。

不禁想起老友愛女車禍之事，寫此詩抒懷。

2008年3月16日

於洛杉磯

56：【夜航南海】

海天一線月輝映，
鯨豚相隨伴舟行。
鷗逐白雲破蕭索，
臥尋天梯北斗星。

註釋：

1，蕭索：雲氣飄流往來的様子。南朝宋．謝惠連《雪賦》「散漫交錯，氛氳蕭索」。

2，天梯：登天的梯子。

3，北斗星：由大熊座的七顆明亮的恆星組成，排列成勺形，被航海者用作指示方向的星座。

背景：

1949年10月，廣州棄守，父親隨部隊行動，母親帶著我們搭上一艘不到千噸的鐵殻船，在沒有艙位下，被安排在甲板上臨時搭建的一間鐵皮屋屋頂上。

那是在逃難，孩子們卻少不更事，覺得像似旅行，母親和孩子們完全是一種截然不同的心情。

十月下旬，小船夜航在南中國海上，風平浪靜，月光皎潔，鯨豚相隨，鷗逐白雲，我們在屋頂上，臥仰天上的星星。

數十年後，我將這段陳年往事，用詩歌紀錄下來。

2008年9月2日，陰曆八月初三，母親84歲生日寫於洛杉磯

57：【舟渡關山】

沉沉孤舟渡關山，
悽悽漠江南岸邊。
聲聲雁鳴聲漸遠，
梗泛萍漂歧路難。
戴月披星過瓊州，
蒼梧儋耳南海中。
孤生茫茫嗟途窮，
懷憂長嘯天來風。

註釋：

2，梗泛萍漂：比喻漂泊流離。

3，瓊州：瓊州海峽。小船由陽江開往湛江目的地，適逢粵系部隊叛變投共，小船不得其門而入，改經瓊州海峽，跨海轉赴海口。

4，蒼梧：海南島。蘇軾詩「蒼梧獨在天一方」。

5，儋耳：今海南省儋州市，蘇軾貶謪地。

6，嗟：悲歎之意。

7，途窮：喻走頭無路，處境困窘。

8，懷憂：憂思鬱結，心懷憂慮。

背景：

母親將當年情景和當時感受，給孩子們口述，我用文字來表達了這段歴史。

大時代戰亂下的兒女，命運多舛，但不畏艱難，用生命捍衛國家，見證歷史。國家的命運跟個人的命運息息相關，沒有國哪有家。

58：【點絳脣】

笛笙悠揚，
桂山獨秀桂林水。
凝睇佳人，
夢中彩雲飛。
腸斷訣別，
孤飛出紅麈。
卻來時，天上人間，
此夜幕簾垂。

註釋：

1，桂山獨秀：廣西桂林城內，山水掩映，峯林環繞，尤以桂山、獨秀二山最為著名。

2，桂林水：桂林有兩江，流經市區。一為灕江，一為桃花江，所謂「桂林山水甲天下」蓋其獨特不類他處也。

3，凝睇：注目而視。

4，訣別：天人永隔。

5，卻來時：恰巧之時，夢中甦醒之時。

6，幕簾垂：夜幕低垂，表示更顯孤寂。

背景：

父親辭世後近八個月，母親首次在夢中與父親相會於桂林，桂林是爸爸媽媽初識的地方，民國27年在此訂婚。

2008年5月21日寫於

洛杉磯

59：【滿江紅】

背景：

洛杉磯

60：【蘇幕遮】

註釋：

8，小林村：高雄甲仙鄉一山地部落，莫拉克颱風造成滅村慘劇。

2009年8月18日寫於

洛杉磯

61：【八八水災】

註釋：

1，莫拉克颱風：民國98年8月8日，造成台灣世紀大水災。

9，金帥飯店：台東知本觀光飯店，八八水災被洪水沖毀，頃刻之間整楝倒塌。

11，小林村：高雄市甲仙區山地部落，八八水災時被滅村。

29，佳暮：屏東縣霧台鄉佳暮村，原住民部落。

71：辭官負責：民國97年5月20日，馬英九就任中華民國第12任總統，劉兆玄出任行政院長，次年9月10日內閣總辭，為八八水災負起政治責任。

背景：

綜合當時中外媒體報導，寫七言80句記述這段歷史。

2009年9月11日於

洛杉磯

62：【餞別】

雁行萬里山外山，
柳絲荷塘長亭邊。
流霞金樽離歌起，
此去重逢待何年。

註釋：

3，長亭：宋．晏殊《踏莎行》「祖席離歌，長亭別宴，香塵已隔猶回面」，「無窮無盡是離愁，天涯地角尋思遍」。古人送別友人，常在長亭别宴。

4，流霞：中國神話中的仙酒。

5，金樽：精致的酒杯。

背景：

2008年美國房屋次貸風暴，掀起全球金融危機，中國大陸未受太多波及，反向海外招募人才。

2009年10日6日

寫於洛杉磯

63：【彈指瞬間】

己亥秋初馬明潭，
書聲朗朗嵩亭邊。
振翼展風奔前程，
立業成家滿開懷。
後生可畏足堪慰，
根蒂緜延不絕年。
五十彈指一瞬間，
不歎惆悵讃當前。

註釋：

1，彈指：佛教中的一個時間量詞，出自於印度梵語

Acchata，常用來比喻時光的短暫。

2，己亥：民國48年(1958年)。

3，馬明潭：位於台北市文山區明興里，聯勤財務學校舊址。

4，嵩亭：立於財務學校校區山丘上，中華民國軍需界元老吳嵩慶將軍在此題匾。

5，後生可畏：出自《論語.子罕》「後生可畏，焉知來者之不如今也」。在此比喻後期同學每每都能超越前期，令人敬畏。

6，惆悵：出自《楚辭.九辯》，本期及後期同學晉升將軍者，已越30人，但亦有一路順風，或仕途不遂者。

背景：

民國48年秋，入財務學校六期就讀，彈指之間已有50年，同學籌備同學會活動，並出版刊物。囑提供文字以茲紀念，共襄盛舉。

2009年1月18日寫於

洛杉磯

64【月色朦朧】

朧朧彎月尋舊譜，
舊曲今唱往事多。
多少陳年生涯事，
盡在詞曲追憶中。
月落荷塘蛙聲下，
隔紗望月月朦朦。
猶記當年故鄉月，
此月彼月四地同。

註釋：

1，朦朧：指物體的樣子模糊。唐.來鵠〈寒食山館書情〉「蜀魄啼來春寂寞，楚魂吟後月朦朧」。

2，隔紗：隔著紗窗。元.倪瓚〈竹枝詞〉「長彈幽恨隔紗窗」。

3，月落河塘：緣自唐，張繼〈楓橋夜泊〉「月落烏啼霜滿天，江楓漁火對愁眠」。四地：上海、台北、巴拿馬、洛杉磯。

背景：

歌曲〈沒有月亮的晚上〉，係香港電影《驚魂記》的插曲，沈華作詞，綦湘棠作曲。2009年9月21日寫於

洛杉磯

65：【懷殤】

憶當年
寺院梵音鐘曉，
更漏盡
寒燈晦烟爐銷。
生死別
茫茫六十秋涼，
情懷殤
他日重溫晨光。

註釋：

1，殤：沒有到成年就夭亡。例如殤折，殤夭。

2，梵音：佛的聲音。

3，鐘曉：清晨的鐘聲。

4，更漏：用滴漏方法計時的器具，古人夜晚看漏刻而知時間。曹雪芹《紅樓夢》「展不開眉頭，挨不明更漏」。

5，寒燈晦烟爐銷：緣自李商隠《憶住一師》「烟爐銷盡寒燈晦，童子開門雪滿松」。整句意為，更漏水已滴盡，寒夜燈燭已成灰，烟爐的香也燒完。

背景：

2007年1月13日晚

寫於丹佛

【寫在律韻情深
詩詞選集之後】

2020年歲序庚子，COVID-19肺炎肆虐全球，造成人類生活上翻天覆地的改變，世界各地執行嚴格管控，居家隔離。

我深居庭院，足未出戶逾一年之久，是人生中一次艱鉅的生活考驗。

2021辛丑年春節過後，百無聊賴，有了整理十年前費時三年寫成的詩詞草稿，做一番修飾整理的念頭。

2021年4月19日寫於

洛杉磯

【附錄】

6，【寄不出的簡訊】

About the Author

Mr. Chen Xoung-Chi was born on July 7, 1940. His hometown is Nan-Yang, Henan Province, China. He was a 1962 graduate of the Academy of Financial Affaires, the Combined Services of the ROC Ministry of Defense. He had served in the Bureau of Financial Affaires, the headquarters of the ROC Combined Services, the Keelung and Taipei City Committee of the Youth Corps, as well as the Chinese newspaper LA REPUBLICA in Panama. Mr. Chen is a renowned newspaper editor and had authored several books in Chinese.

This book is a collection of his poetry in traditional Chinese rhymed style and format. Mr. Chen has had a profound interest in poetry since childhood, owing to the influence of his parents and family heritage. While being an accomplished writer and newspaper editor since 1980’s, he only became a serious composer of poems after the turn of century at the age of 60. We at BigBall are honored to provide the platform to publish Mr. Chen’s first poetry book in found memory of his beloved mother. Mr. Chen also attached several of his mother’s poems and short articles at the end of this book.

Translated from the Chinese by AI (Claude) in November 2026. Not yet reviewed by the author.

Inching Along the Road of Poetry (Preface)
Spring Comes to the Prairie 【春入草原】
2: Auspicious Snow in April 【四月瑞雪】
3: In an Instant 【霎那之間】
4: Gazing Toward My Old Home from Afar 【遙望鄉關】
5: The Panama Canal 【巴拿馬運河】
6: A Farmhouse in a Small Town 【小城農舍】
7: Lost Years 【年華流失】
8: A Night in the Mountains 【山中夜宿】
9: Strolling in the Mountain Woods 【漫步山林】
10: The Grand Canyon 【大峽谷】
11: A Dream of the Peach Blossom Land 【綺夢桃源】
12: To the Tune of "Yu Meiren" (The Beauty Yu) 【虞美人】
13: To the Tune of "Su Zhongqing" (Telling My Heart) 【訴衷情】
14: Fayun Temple 【法雲寺】
15: Ode to the Crow 【詠鴉】
16: To the Tune of "Bu Suanzi" (The Fortune Teller) 【卜算子】
17: Chasing Dreams of Mountain and Lake 【逐夢山湖】
18: Song of an Old Tree 【老樹吟】
19: Flute and Zither in the Silent Night 【寂夜簫箏】
20: Shangri-La 【香格里拉】
21: Universal Studios 【環球影城】
22: Disneyland 【迪斯尼樂園】
23: Feelings for Two Lands 【兩地情懷】
24: A Garden Lush and Green 【滿園葱蘢】
25: Chess Is Like Life 【棋如人生】
26: Eternal Life 【生命永恆】
27: The Sorrow of Parting 【傷離情懷】
28: Thoughts of Parting 【離思】
29: Watching the Rain 【觀雨】
30: To the Tune of "Ru Meng Ling" (As If in a Dream) 【如夢令】
31: To the Tune of "Su Zhongqing" (Telling My Heart) 【訴衷情】
32: Osmanthus Fragrance 【桂芳】
33: Fickle Love 【薄倖】
34: Lovelorn 【情痴】
35: To the Tune of "Cai Sang Zi" (Picking Mulberries) 【採桑子】
36: The World Expo Opens 【世博會開幕】
37: A Calm and Simple Floating Life 【恬淡浮生】
38: The Lotus 【蓮花】
39: Last Night and This Morning 【昨夜今晨】
40: Gone Before Her Prime 【不待年芳】
41: A Butterfly Flies to Heaven 【蝶飛天上】
42: The Moon Shines on One Leaving Home 【月照離人】
43: A Diamond Marriage 【鑽石良緣】
44: A Superstar Falls 【巨星殞落】 The King of Pop, Jackson,
45: A Career Like Floating Clouds 【浮雲生涯】
46: To the Tune of "Bu Suan Zi" (Song of Divination) 【卜算子】
47: You Lie Among the White Clouds 【君臥白雲】
48: To the Tune of "Cai Sang Zi" (Picking Mulberries) 【採桑子】
49: The Fragrance of Plum and Orchid 【梅蘭芳香】
50: At Ease in the Red Dust 【紅麈自在】
51: Homesick on the Winter Solstice 【冬至思鄉】
52: Desolate Dongting 【寂落洞庭】
53: The Hook Moon and the Painted Tower 【月鉤畫樓】
54: Spring's Bloom Slips Away 【春華縱逝】
55: Cherishing the Flowers, the Flowers Fade 【惜花花殘】
56: Night Voyage on the South China Sea 【夜航南海】
57: By Boat Past Passes and Mountains 【舟渡關山】
58: To the Tune of "Dian Jiang Chun" (Rouged Lips) 【點絳脣】
59: To the Tune of "Man Jiang Hong" (The River All Red) 【滿江紅】
60: To the Tune of "Su Mu Zhe" (Screened by Southern Curtains) 【蘇幕遮】
61: The August 8 Floods 【八八水災】
62: A Farewell Banquet 【餞別】
63: In the Snap of a Finger 【彈指瞬間】
64: Hazy Moonlight 【月色朦朧】
65: Mourning One Who Died Young 【懷殤】
Afterword to Selected Poems of Enduring Love 【寫在律韻情深詩詞選集之後】
Appendix 【附錄】
1, Deep in the Courtyard 【庭院深處】
2, A Marriage Made in Heaven 【天賜姻緣】
3, Praying to the Holy Mother 【虔求聖母】
4, Longing and Longing 【思思念念】
6, A Message That Cannot Be Sent 【寄不出的簡訊】

Inching Along the Road of Poetry (Preface)

In 1943 (year 32 of the Republic), the War of Resistance against Japan entered its hardest period. Our family lived in the countryside of Rongchang County, Sichuan. It was the turn from late spring to early summer, and from the bamboo grove came the calls of orioles, warbling and trilling over and over, sweet and sorrowful. My grandmother (my mother's mother), missing my grandfather, who had disappeared, could not help reciting Jin Changxu's (金昌緒) poem "Spring Lament" (春怨): "Shoo the orioles away, don't let them sing on the branches. Their singing startles me from my dream, and I cannot reach Liaoxi." (打起黃鶯兒，莫教枝上啼。啼時驚妾夢，不得到遼西。) This was my first encounter with Tang poetry. Even after my mother explained it, I still did not understand.

In junior high school, my Chinese teacher Qiu Dongxu (丘東旭) taught Su Shi's "Recalling the Past at Red Cliff" (赤壁懷古). He made the deep simple and explained the content of the ci poem clearly, so that I understood the times in which Su Shi wrote this poem to the tune "Niannujiao" (念奴嬌). Without a doubt, he opened the gate of poetry for me. From then on, my understanding and love of poetry went a step deeper.

In the summer vacation of 1954 (year 43 of the Republic), our family subscribed to the Youth Warrior Daily (青年戰士報), which the postman delivered every afternoon. I was always the first to look through it, and once everyone had taken a turn, it became mine alone. The literary supplement was a must-read. Its contents were rich, covering essays, fiction, modern poetry and appreciations of classical poetry, and most of its writers were military authors.

I couldn't bear to throw away the papers I had read, so I pasted the articles I loved into a scrapbook, to leaf through and memorize at any time. I pasted the poems into a volume of their own. The detailed appreciations and explanations helped me understand the endless depth of feeling in poetry and the inexhaustible beauty of its imagery. (1)

My love of poetry did not change for decades. The seed of poetry had long been buried in the ground, and I always hoped that one day a work of my own would appear, breaking through the soil to greet the sun.

In October 1979, I went far away to Panama in Central America to become the editor of an overseas Chinese newspaper. An outsider doing an insider's job, I edited, wrote and handled administration, and I stayed for nineteen years, joking that I was Su Wu herding sheep.

I spared no effort to enrich the literary supplement. Among the poems sent in there were many fine pieces. I often talked poetry with the authors and made friends with them, and along the way I learned some techniques of composition. Once in a while I picked up the pen to show off a little, but nothing I wrote hung together, and in the end it all went into the wastebasket.

In April 2006, my wife and I traveled to the small town of Bloomfield on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, to visit our younger son, Anderson, who worked at the town's science park. His dormitory building stood on a hillside with a wide view. A great stretch of prairie reached for miles, and the Rocky Mountains in the distance were all in sight. In April the grass was already a green carpet, and swans, geese and ducks played on the prairie's lakes. Along both sides of the winding mountain road the azaleas were in full bloom, and when April snow happened to fall, the sight was all the more stunning.

With such bright scenery and lovely days, I could not resist the temptation of spring and felt the urge to write a poem. The first poem of my life, one that hardly counted as a poem, was the seven-character quatrain "Spring Comes to the Prairie" (春入草原). After I had revised it again and again and polished it over and over, it was finally done. My wife became its first reader and gave it the verdict "so-so." From then on, each time I finished a poem I would telephone Taiwan and recite it to my mother; after all, a mother never finds her son ugly. (2)

With my mother's blessing and encouragement, the urge to write poetry welled up like a spring. To my surprise, within three years I had completed nearly 80 works, 12 of them ci poems. They include poems of homesickness, of encouragement, of farewell, of mourning and of satire, poems remembering people and celebrating events and things, and some doggerel as well.

In September 2009, I had bypass surgery after a heart attack. The doctor told me to rest quietly and recover, and my poetry writing came to a pause. In the years that followed, I wrote an impromptu piece now and then.

On January 31, 2013, the lunar New Year's Eve of the guisi year, I wrote a poem, "Written on New Year's Eve" (除夕作), expressing how I felt at the time: "New Year's Eve far from home still has its warmth; around the stove, cups raised, the whole family rejoices. Content with heaven's will, my heart follows fate; open and at ease, another year goes by." (客鄉除夜有溫暖，樽前圍爐閤家歡。樂天知命心隨缘，豁然達觀又一年。)

After finishing "Written on New Year's Eve," I concentrated on writing prose. The manuscripts of my poems have gathered dust ever since. A few days ago, in high spirits, I took them out and read them again.

Since ancient times China has been a nation of poetry, and poetry is also a cultural emblem of who we are as Chinese. Fortunate to have this bond with poetry, I urge myself to practice with devotion, so that I can keep writing and, with a tranquil heart, carry my poet's pen into wider areas of life.

I am grateful to my mother for naming this collection "Selected Poems of Enduring Love" (律韻情深). I respectfully offer this essay as its foreword, and as comfort to my late mother; may she rest in peace in heaven.

February 11, 2021

New Year's Eve of the gengzi year, in Los Angeles (3)

Spring Comes to the Prairie 【春入草原】

Spring comes to the prairie in golden broom;
Near paths and far mountains glow in the slanting sun.
Wild geese nestle by the willows on the lakeshore;
Drifting clouds and a light breeze settle on this land of water.

Notes:

1. Golden broom (金雀花) is a small yellow flower seen every spring in the Rocky Mountains. 2. The words "wild geese" (鴻雁) were originally the title of a poem in the Minor Odes (小雅) of the Book of Songs (詩經), standing for refugees displaced by war.

Background:

In the spring of 2006, I traveled to the small town of Bloomfield, Colorado, for a brief reunion with my younger son, Anderson, who worked at the technology company Sun Microsystems. His home was on a hillside with the Rocky Mountains in the distance, and the scenery was delightful. Below the hill lay a stretch of green prairie, where golden broom swayed in the wind. On the lakeshore, wild geese nestled by the willows, and white clouds skimmed across the lake. On the spur of the moment I wrote this short seven-character quatrain, which I revised twice.

2: Auspicious Snow in April 【四月瑞雪】

Peak after peak, the Rocky Mountains stretch on;
In April, auspicious snow drifts across the prairie.
The earth turns silver under a blue, cloud-flecked sky;
Winter goes, spring comes, and we celebrate a bountiful year.

Explanation:

The Rocky Mountains are the main mountain range of western America. Running from British Columbia in Canada in the north, through the western United States to New Mexico, they rise to 4,389 meters and stretch for 4,800 kilometers.

Background:

In the spring of 2006, traveling in the foothills of the Rockies near Denver, Colorado, I saw snow fall in April for the first time in my life. Just as the green prairie was beginning to bloom, the land turned silver again. It was a delightful, surprising encounter.

Denver farmers say that whenever snow falls in April, the year is sure to bring a good harvest.

3: In an Instant 【霎那之間】

Under a hazy moon, silver flowers fly,
As though clouds and mist were rolling in.
In a moment, in the blink of an eye,
The hilltops turn white overnight.

Background:

In April 2006, while staying in the mountains near Denver, Colorado, I sipped tea one night and read Cao Cao's (曹操) "A Short Song" (短歌行). Its first four lines, "Facing wine, let us sing: how long is a human life? It is like the morning dew; the days gone by are all too many." (對酒當歌，人生幾何。譬如朝露，去日苦多。), lament the shortness of life and the passing of one's years.

Reading the whole poem closely, I saw that Cao Cao did not take a negative view of life. Its theme is his thirst for worthy men and his respect for talent. He urges himself on: life is precious, and in an instant one's temples turn gray, so he must do all he can to labor for the state and bring benefit to the people, so that all under heaven will give him their hearts.

That night, snowflakes drifted under a hazy moon, and in an instant the hilltops turned white overnight. Moved, I used the changing snow scene as a metaphor for human life.

4: Gazing Toward My Old Home from Afar 【遙望鄉關】

Wild geese fly south, wing to wing;
I would entrust them with a letter to that distant land.
The countless threads of my years in that distant land:
The paper is short, the feelings long, too much to tell.
Gazing toward that home five thousand li away,
The places the same, the people changed, it is hard to bear the thought.
Looking back on nineteen years in my adopted land,
I liken myself to Su Wu on the northern frontier.

Notes:

1. Wild geese (大雁): the common name for the swan goose (鴻雁). They migrate with the seasons, coming and going at fixed times every year. In ancient times, when communication was difficult, letters were often passed by way of wild geese.

2. Brocade letter (錦書): that is, a letter.

3. Denver and Panama are 4,249 kilometers apart.

Background:

After April 2006, in early February 2007 my wife and I went to Denver again to spend the Spring Festival with Anderson. The green hills, the green grass, the prairie, the little lake and the walking trails were all as before.

On February 4, the Beginning of Spring (立春), the snow had cleared, the sky was high and the air crisp. In the afternoon, the geography channel on cable TV was showing a series on the life and customs of Panama, and outside the window I saw flocks of geese flying south. I couldn't help missing the place where I had once lived for 19 years. All at once I imagined entrusting a letter to the geese to carry to that faraway home.

The scenery and people of Panama are often on my mind. I wrote a seven-character regulated verse in remembrance.

5: The Panama Canal 【巴拿馬運河】

The canal, so lovely, its scenery so fine,
Spans two oceans.
A purple haze in the morning light,
Light clouds, thin mist, a gentle breeze rising.
Iron oxen tow the ships into the locks;
The water rises, and the ships rise with it.
The lock water levels with the lake;
The gates open, ships sound their horns and sail into the lake.
Hibiscus and bougainvillea, red as fire;
Ships keep company with the setting sun.
Green water, blue shores,
Willows droop, lotuses open, fragrant in bloom.
Deep lake, long rods, the joy of fishing;
The trout are fat, the carp robust.
The lake is broad, the waves calm;
Rainforest lines both banks, coconut palms grow tall.
When the misty rain clears, floating clouds rise,
And rosy clouds roam above the lake.
Music and song on night cruises;
Stars and moon vie in brilliance over this land of water.
I would be a seagull, following the ships,
Gazing toward home from afar.
Ten thousand li apart,
A traveler far from home, I send letters home by ship and goose.

Notes:

1. The canal: it crosses the Isthmus of Panama, linking the Pacific and the Atlantic. It is 82 kilometers long, one of the world's key shipping routes, and was completed on August 15, 1914.

2. Locks: there is a 20-meter difference in height between the canal and sea level, so ships passing through must have the water level controlled by locks.

3. Iron oxen (鐵牛): electric locomotives on the lock walls, commonly called "electric mules." When ships pass through the locks, they are towed by these iron oxen.

Background:

My primary school classmate Gao Zuguang (高祖光) has lived in retirement since coming to the United States. His children all have families and careers of their own, and all live in California. In 2006 he bought a small cabin in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles, in a community of a dozen or so households. He and his wife live there happily, as carefree as immortals.

The mountain is shaped like a rooster's comb, hence its name, Rooster Comb Mountain (鷄冠山); it rises 1,546 meters. A road has been cut halfway up the mountain. Residents and visitors alike must leave their cars in the mountain parking lot and then walk up a trail for about ten minutes to reach the cabin.

Late October 2008 was already deep autumn, past Cold Dew (寒露). One weekend we were invited up the mountain for a get-together. My elder son, Anthony, drove and led the way, and my wife and I went up together to visit. We stayed the night in the mountains, and everyone talked through the long night until dawn.

9: Strolling in the Mountain Woods 【漫步山林】

Morning dew appears in the woods;
The wind stirs, and mist dampens my collar.
On the misty mountain path my steps are light;
From where has it flown,
The yellow finch singing on the branch?
Hidden orchids scent the valley;
The fresh dawn air brushes my face.
Clouds surge and mountain mist rises over the pine cliffs;
Geese fly across the blue sky,
Line after line, calling as they sweep past.

Background:

After October 2008, in August 2010 I visited Rooster Comb Mountain northeast of Los Angeles again, and again spent the night in the mountains.

In the jiachen year, a soldier, I stood guard on Wuzhou;
Gulangyu lay fully within my sight.
Waking from dreams of the frontier, where am I?
Half a lifetime drifting far from home.
When every calamity is passed, the bond between the two shores
Will wipe away old enmity.
My hair and beard have turned autumn-gray;
My body grows old in California,
My heart still longs for China.

Notes:

1. Jiachen (甲辰): 1964 (year 53 of the Republic), the jiachen year in the sixty-year cycle. 2. Wuzhou (浯州): the old name of Kinmen. 3. Gulangyu (浪嶼): Gulangyu Island, a small island southwest of Xiamen, nearly two square kilometers in area, with a population of about 20,000 (2008). A famous scenic spot known as the "Garden on the Sea," it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2017.

Background:

In 1964, as a first lieutenant, I was posted to the front line on Kinmen and served for a year on Lesser Kinmen (Lieyu). I often went to the Hujingtou loudspeaker station and gazed across at Xiamen and Gulangyu on the opposite shore; the activity on the islands was clearly visible.

Half a century later, the two sides of the Strait are working toward the goal of "mutual trust and mutual help, creating a win-win together." My life on the battlefield of those years often appears in my dreams. When I wake, I don't know where I am.

In the Ming dynasty, Kinmen was called Wuzhou. Because it is shaped like a gold ingot and guards the gateway to southern Fujian, it was renamed Kinmen [literally "Golden Gate"] in the early Qing.

"When every calamity is passed" and "wipe away old enmity" come from Lu Xun's (魯迅) "Inscribed on the Pagoda of the Three Righteous" (題三義塔), which contains the lines "Having crossed the waves of calamity, we are still brothers; meeting again, with a smile we wipe away old enmity." (渡盡刼波兄弟在，相逢一笑泯恩仇) Let us see how the two shores resolve the grievances of history. Though I live in California, my heart is always on the mainland, the Divine Land of China.

I wrote the ci above to the tune "Su Zhongqing" on April 17, 2008, in Los Angeles.

14: Fayun Temple 【法雲寺】

Wisps of cloud curl through the pine woods;
The mountain emerges in the distant light;
The temple's morning bell rings out.
A clear stream winds on and on;
Up the stone steps,
A fresh breeze meets my face, the bamboo sways.
Brushing off dust, washing away grime,
Practicing meditation, stilling the mind,
Lotuses bloom fragrant in the lotus pond.
Under a clear blue sky,
A sanctuary among white clouds,
Towering halls lean toward the sun.

Notes:

1. Fayun Temple (法雲寺): on Guanyin Mountain in Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan, 901 meters above sea level; it heads the Fayun Temple branch, one of the four major Buddhist lineages in Taiwan. 2. Curling smoke (裊煙): white clouds curling around. 3. Winding (邐迤): twisting and stretching far.

Background:

Background:

In the 1920s the American film industry took off. Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, with lavish investment, a precise division of labor, first-rate performers and astonishing efficiency, released one classic after another. They sparked new ways of thinking around the world and nourished people's souls, becoming the most representative and most influential part of American culture.

In Taiwan I saw many popular Hollywood films and hoped that someday I would have the chance to visit Hollywood and fulfill my dream. I never imagined that our family would move to Los Angeles; in 2008 we even bought annual passes, and within one year the whole family visited Hollywood three times to our hearts' content.

22: Disneyland 【迪斯尼樂園】

In the southern corner of Los Angeles lies Disneyland,
A make-believe world full of wonders.
It's a Small World: wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!
Children's chatter, faces full of smiles.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
Long-eared white rabbits and little elves.
The castle kingdom, Goofy the big silly dog,
Mickey and Minnie flying across the sky.
Big-billed, flat-capped Donald Duck,
A witch soaring after a crow.
Fireworks blaze, the lights bright as day;
Fine horses and carved carriages fill the road with fragrance.
A dreamland appears before my eyes;
The night sky sparkles with stars falling like rain.
A new world of happiness for children,
Songs ringing out everywhere through the crowds.

Notes:

Disneyland (迪斯尼樂園): Disneyland Park, also called Disneyland California, in Anaheim, California. It covers 0.524 square kilometers, opened in 1955, and was the world's first Disney park.

Background:

In July 1985, when our two children were still in primary school in the Panama Canal Zone, SCN Channel 8, the US forces TV station, broadcast the celebrations of Disneyland's 30th anniversary in California. It left a deep impression on us, and we hoped to visit someday. Fifteen years later, in 2000, our family moved to Los Angeles, and at last the dream came true.

23: Feelings for Two Lands 【兩地情懷】

Universal Studios and dreamy Disneyland:
The joys of Los Angeles.
Yushan, Yangming and Alishan:
Dreams of Taiwan.
Jazz, rock and country music
Are pleasant to the ear.
Glove puppet shows and Taiwanese opera
Still leave me wanting more.
Cheese, salad and Kentucky Fried Chicken:
I eat to my heart's content.
Hot rice dumplings, thin noodles, braised pork rice:
Their taste still lingers.
A house of my own with green trees and a garden:
That is today.
A little house with a dirt yard in the military dependents' village:
That is memory of those years.

Notes:

1. Jazz (爵士): jazz music, which originated in the African American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 2. Rock (搖滾): rock music, which originated in Ohio in the 1950s, a broad form of music within rock and roll. It developed into a range of different styles in Britain and the United States, bold, flexible and full of passion. 3. Country music (鄉村樂): it originated in the southern states of the US in the 1920s, and its style belongs to traditional folk song. 4. Kentucky Fried Chicken (肯塔鷄): Kentucky Fried Chicken, KFC for short, one of America's multinational fast-food restaurant chains, known for selling fried chicken.

Background:

I have lived abroad for 40 years and adopted local ways, and I have come to treat my adopted land as my hometown. Yet kin or not, they are people from home; lovely or not, it is the water of home. I often think of the people and the water of my old home.

In November 2011, I took an autumn trip northeast of Los Angeles to the San Bernardino National Forest, 2,100 meters above sea level, just when the maple leaves were at their reddest.

At night I read Tang and Song poems about admiring maple leaves. Zhu Shuzhen (朱淑真) of the Song, "Composed Casually Facing the Scene" (對景漫成): "Maple leaves drunk-red amid the autumn colors; two or three lines of geese in the setting sun." (楓葉醉紅秋色里，兩三行雁夕陽中。)

Yu Xuanji (魚玄機) of the Tang, "Gazing in Sorrow at Jiangling, Sent to You" (江陵愁望有寄): "My heart, thinking of you, is like the West River's water, flowing east day and night without rest." (憶君心似西江水，日夜東流無歇時。)

Kou Zhun (寇準) of the Song, "On the River" (江上): "I gaze down the empty river as far as the eye can see; the maple leaves are half red, and he has not yet come home." (空江極目望不盡，楓葉半紅人未歸。)

I couldn't help recalling something that happened over 30 years ago, and I wrote a ci to the tune "Su Zhongqing" to express my feelings.

November 11, 2011

In Los Angeles

32: Osmanthus Fragrance 【桂芳】

Light clouds, crisp air, a fragrance drifts in:
A tree full of osmanthus beside the bridge over the stream.
A fresh breeze blows down the millet-yellow buds;
I wonder if it's autumn rain, lovesick with fragrance.

Notes:

Millet-yellow buds (粟蕊黃): su (粟) is what is usually called xiaomi, or millet, and its buds are yellow. Hong Mai (洪邁) of the Song wrote in "Osmanthus" (桂花) the lines "So elegant it would claim all the autumn light, deep beneath its leaves it hides its millet-bud flowers." (風流直欲占秋光，葉底深藏粟蕊花。) "Millet-yellow buds" refers to the flower buds of the osmanthus.

Background:

In October 2007, I returned to Taiwan to visit family, and we went together to Benji Lake in the Nangang tea hills. We took a forest trail and walked to an osmanthus grove to admire the blossoms.

Beside a winding bridge over a little river, we watched the wind blow the osmanthus blossoms into the stream, a true scene of "osmanthus rain" that made us reluctant to leave.

The next month, back at home in Los Angeles, our good neighbor, old Mr. Li (李老), invited us to taste the osmanthus tea he had roasted himself. The fragrance of the tea filled the air, rich and sweet, and we talked happily about the pleasure of hiking and admiring the osmanthus on my trip back to Taiwan.

Written on November 15, 2007, in Los Angeles

33: Fickle Love 【薄倖】

Yuan Zhen once used the waters of the vast sea as a metaphor:
"Apart from Mount Wu, no clouds are truly clouds."
The parasol tree withers after the clear frost;
Fanghui, white-haired, flies on without his mate.
Wenjun's one poem, "Song of White Hair,"
called back Xiangru's heartless heart.
The greatest love in this world can still be found:
Korea's Jeong-ho and Dae Jang-geum.
The love of Scholar Zhang and Yingying is precious,
but no one sings to the bright moon by the West Chamber anymore.
A charming young concubine is kept in a golden house,
until her beauty fades and she becomes a cast-off wife.
How many fickle, vulgar husbands there are,
and women greedy for money are all too common.
But watch when the money runs out and love is cut off:
in the flickering candlelight of old age, they sigh in vain.

Notes:

1. Yuan Zhen (元稹), a poet of the mid-Tang dynasty, wrote a set of five poems, "Parting Thoughts" (離思), in memory of his late wife, using the vast sea and Mount Wu as metaphors for the love between husband and wife.

2. He Zhu (賀鑄), a ci poet of the Northern Song whose courtesy name was Fanghui (方回), wrote a ci in memory of his late wife, using the words "clear frost" to describe the parasol trees withering after the autumn frost. His beloved wife was dead and he was grief-stricken beyond words, while he himself was growing old, his head full of white hair, a lone goose flying alone.

3. Sima Xiangru (司馬相如) was a brilliantly gifted great writer of the Western Han. After reading the poem "Song of White Hair" (白頭吟) written by his wife, Zhuo Wenjun (卓文君), he was deeply moved and gave up the idea of taking a concubine.

4. The Korean drama "Dae Jang-geum" (大長今), though a TV drama, is not pure fiction. The love story between its male lead, Min Jeong-ho (閔政浩), and the palace medical woman Dae Jang-geum gives the best illustration of the saying "may all lovers in the world be joined in marriage" (天下有情人終成眷屬).

5. Emperor Wu of Han (漢武帝) wanted to take A'jiao (阿嬌) as his concubine and keep her in a golden house; in the end the concubine lost her looks and was reduced to a cast-off wife.

6. The Yuan-dynasty drama "The Romance of the West Chamber" (西廂記) tells how the scholar Zhang Junrui (張君瑞) and Cui Yingying (崔鶯鶯), the daughter of a chief minister, broke through feudal restraints and finally married. The two took the bright moon as their witness to their faithfulness in love.

Background:

A primary-school classmate of my wife, surnamed Huang, came to the US from Vietnam with her husband. They had a son and a daughter, and they did remarkably well contracting civil engineering work in Southern California, with a happy family. Unexpectedly, the husband kept a mistress in a "golden house," and when it came out, it became a scandal all over town. They were truly a quarrelsome pair of lovers and foes, a vulgar man and a foolish woman.

Written July 23, 2009, in

Following the 2008 Beijing Olympics, mainland China in 2010 hosted in Shanghai a World Expo that dazzled the whole world. On opening day I watched the live broadcast in Los Angeles and was moved.

Written May 1, 2010, in

Los Angeles

37: A Calm and Simple Floating Life 【恬淡浮生】

Using up every scheme, hollowing out every plot, they never escape ruthless hands and poisoned hearts, never walk out of the prison in their minds.
Seizing power, competing for favor, hatred left at Yingtai, grievance left at Wei Slope: glory and riches in the end come to nothing.
Fierce outside, weak within, mediocre and ordinary, clinging to dragons and phoenixes: all a dream under the southern bough.
The face of the sky, the color of the water, the white moon and the clear breeze; a pot of cloudy wine drunk to my heart's content, a cup of tea whose fragrance lingers.
Seeing things clearly, letting things go, frank and full of humor, happy and at peace in the countryside, leaving everything to laughter and talk.
Calm and content, blessed to be a little muddled; this floating life has no fixed course, and my spirit is at leisure.

Notes:

1. Tiandan (恬淡, calm simplicity): a mind at peace, indifferent to fame and gain. From Zhuangzi, "The Way of Heaven" (莊子．天道): "Emptiness, stillness, calm simplicity, silence and non-action are the level of heaven and earth and the height of the Way and its virtue." (夫虛靜恬淡，寂漠無為者，天地之平，而道德之至。)

2. Fusheng (浮生, floating life): human life as drifting and unsettled. From Zhuangzi, "Constrained in Will" (莊子．刻意): "His life is like floating, his death like resting." (其生若浮，其死若休。)

3. Yingtai (瀛台): in the West Garden of the old Qing palace in Beijing, on Taiye Lake. It is surrounded by water on three sides, full of strange rocks and beautiful scenery, and was where the Qing emperors held court in summer. The Guangxu Emperor (光緒帝) was imprisoned here by Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后); the two died here one after the other, only a day apart, in sorrow and resentment.

4. Wei Slope (嵬坡): that is, Mawei Slope (馬嵬坡), or Mawei Pass. In the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (唐玄宗), the An Lushan–Shi Siming Rebellion broke out. As Xuanzong fled to Shu, the generals and soldiers with him demanded that Consort Yang (楊妃) be put to death. Xuanzong had no choice and ordered Gao Lishi (高力士) to strangle the Precious Consort here.

Song Manli (宋蔓莉), who was like a sister to my wife and her colleague as a Chinese-language teacher at the Sun Yat-sen School of the Chinese-Panamanian Cultural Center in Panama, died of colon cancer at Paitilla Hospital in Panama, still young, not yet sixty. She left her husband and two beautiful, intelligent and naturally lovely daughters. The elder daughter, Luna Lee, won the crown of Miss Chinatown of the six Central American countries in 1994. Hearing the terrible news in the US, I was deeply saddened.

February 7, 2007

Written in Denver

41: A Butterfly Flies to Heaven 【蝶飛天上】

On a raft sailing the Milky Way,
leaving the dust behind, drifting with the clouds,
like Zhuang Zhou, you fly as a butterfly.
The sound of wind, pipes and flutes enters my dream;
you left home to travel far and do not return.
Heavenly music floats
high in the lovely palace,
and the jade heavens reflect the bright moon.
Union and parting are fate from a former life;
vast and hazy, I can only imagine.

Notes:

1. Cha (槎, pronounced "cha"): a bamboo or wooden raft.

2. Zhuang Zhou flying as a butterfly: from Zhuang Zhou's dream of the butterfly. Zhuangzi dreamed he became a butterfly and roamed in all directions; when he awoke, he was still Zhuangzi. It suggests a dream journey of oneness between heaven and humankind.

3. "Heavenly music floats, high in the lovely palace": from Bai Juyi's (白居易) "Song of Everlasting Regret" (長恨歌): "The Li Palace rises high into the blue clouds; heavenly music drifts on the wind and is heard everywhere." (驪宮高處入青雲，仙樂風飄處處聞)

4. Yuyu (玉宇, the jade realm): the sky, the universe; in legend, the dwelling of the Jade Emperor; it also means a magnificent palace.

5. Duotui (度推): to guess, to imagine; here the character 度 is pronounced like 舵 ("duo").

Background:

In 2006 (on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month of the bingxu year), I fell into a dream at midnight and saw my younger brother, who had passed away half a year before, turned into a butterfly, riding a bamboo raft and flying to the Milky Way, roaming the jade heavens in endless joy. When I woke, there was no butterfly; I was still myself. In a daze I imagined all the wonders of that heavenly fairyland, and I wrote down what I had seen in the dream and what I thought on waking.

February 16, 2007

Written in Denver

42: The Moon Shines on One Leaving Home 【月照離人】

From the Bitan tower I gazed up at the moon and the starry sky;
at our parting I saw Yue'e in the pool.
As I left my country and my family, the farewell song rose;
the moon shining on one departing made the sorrow deeper.
Looking back on thirty years of wandering,
overseas in the red dust, the bright years flowed away.
Through many storms, a guest in an overseas Chinese community,
tonight I meet the bright moon of those years.

Notes:

1. Bitan tower (碧樓): the viewing tower at Bitan, on the steep rocks of "Little Red Cliff."

2. Yue'e (月娥): the fairy of the moon.

3. Liren (離人): one who leaves home; the word often conveys sadness.

Background:

On October 5, 1979, which was the Mid-Autumn Festival, my parents invited all their children and grandchildren to enjoy the moon at the Bitan viewing platform; at the end of that month I left for Panama to make my way. The next year I was reunited with my wife and children, and we worked hard together there for 19 years before immigrating to the US, a full 30 years by 2009.

Spring goes and autumn comes, through many storms; I sigh at how the world changes, and in a flash my temples have turned frosty white.

On October 3, 2009, with the bright Mid-Autumn moon high in the sky, I enjoyed the moon with my wife and children at Cuihu Park near our home. Gazing up at the moon and the starry sky, I recalled that night at Bitan and saw again the bright moon of those years. I sighed, my heart full of feelings.

43: A Diamond Marriage 【鑽石良緣】

This day two years ago, in this very home,
wiping tears of blood, weeping, a gloom fell over her heart.
People have changed but the scenery is the same;
in the small room she paces alone, remembering.
A happy marriage bound for seventy years,
a harmonious, thriving family to gladden the heart.
Helpless, the shadow (Ying) is gone without a trace;
his voice and face live on, returning in dreams (Meng).

Notes:

1. Diamond marriage: Wikipedia calls the 60th wedding anniversary a diamond wedding and the 70th a platinum wedding. In American custom, the diamond wedding is said to be the grandest wedding anniversary of a lifetime, a description of a long marriage, and the idea is widely used around the world. The 70th anniversary is also called the platinum wedding, an even higher level.

2. Wenxue liqi (抆血瀝泣, wiping blood and shedding tears): extreme grief, wiping away tears. From Jiang Yan (江淹) of the Liang in the Southern Dynasties, "Rhapsody on Parting" (別賦): "Cutting off tender love, leaving country and village, weeping in farewell, looking at each other with bloodied faces." (割慈忍愛，離邦去里，瀝泣共訣，刎血相視)

3. Ying (影): my late father's courtesy name was Zhongying (仲影); here "Ying" refers to my father.

4. Meng (夢): my grandmother (mother's mother) had two daughters and a son. The elder daughter, my mother, had the childhood name "Meng" (Dream). Interestingly, the younger daughter's childhood name was "Xing" (Awake). My uncle's childhood name was "Yanchang" (燕昌). All of them were named by my great-grandfather.

Background:

October 9, 2009, was my parents' 70th wedding anniversary. Two years earlier, on October 9, 2007, my father passed away peacefully in my mother's arms.

My mother often paces alone in their apartment, remembering. The scenery is the same, but my father is nowhere to be seen; his voice, his face and his smile often come back in my mother's dreams.

October 9, 2009, my parents' 70th wedding anniversary, in Los Angeles

44: A Superstar Falls 【巨星殞落】 The King of Pop, Jackson,

gone suddenly in his prime, is deeply mourned.
His difficult dance steps were graceful;
his voice captivated fans across all the media.
A warm smile always on his face,
beyond race, all one family.
Neverland Ranch remains for remembrance;
he rivals Elvis and surpasses Princess Diana.

Notes:

1. Jackson: Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) had a legendary life, including changes in his skin color and appearance, and even pedophilia. He left many hugely popular songs; his pop charisma is rooted deep in people's hearts, and he is called the "King of Pop."

2. Elvis: Elvis Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), American rock and roll singer and film actor.

3. Princess Diana: Diana, Princess of Wales (July 1, 1961 – August 31, 1997), the first wife of the British heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales. With her warm, sunny smile and her graceful, intelligent bearing, a happy young aristocrat married into the British royal family, but loved the wrong man.

4. Neverland Ranch: the scenery and amusements in the ranch were just like its name, a happy paradise for Michael and his children. It is on the outskirts of Los Olivos, Santa Barbara County, California.

Written on July 7, 2009, the day of Michael's memorial service, in front of the TV showing the live broadcast.

45: A Career Like Floating Clouds 【浮雲生涯】

Glory and riches are like floating clouds;
I said goodbye to my homeland and went to a foreign land.
Nineteen years of a career in editing and writing:
it was hard on the young man who ran a newspaper back then.

Notes:

1. Floating clouds: clouds drifting in the sky. Song Yu (宋玉), "Nine Changes" (九辯) in the Songs of Chu: "Alone I keep to this place without favor; I look up at the floating clouds and sigh forever." (塊獨守此無澤兮，仰浮雲而永歏) It is a metaphor for things not worth worrying about.

2. Shengya (生涯, career, the span of life): the life a person has lived. Zhuangzi, "Nourishing the Lord of Life" (養生主): "My life has a limit, but knowledge has no limit." (吾生也有涯，而知也無涯)

Background:

In the overseas Chinese community of Panama, I worked for a Chinese newspaper for nineteen years. I went from not being used to it, to adapting, to loving it and not wanting to let go. Though the road was hard and the days were plain, I found it sweet. From the work I gained much knowledge and experience, and in life I gained much seasoning and joy.

Some say, "If you want to ruin someone, let him run a newspaper." Yet I faced it gladly and came through.

Written July 10, 2009, in

Los Angeles

46: To the Tune of "Bu Suan Zi" (Song of Divination) 【卜算子】

The weary bird returns to the woods at night;
the slanting sun warms the river.
Lamps glow before the mountain as dusk draws near;
returning boats sing in the evening glow.
The river's waves pound the cracked banks;
clouds and mist drift over the peaks.
A round autumn moon shines among cold stars;
the river's water never returns.

Notes:

1. Weary bird: someone returning to his hometown from the place where he has been living away.

2. Warm river: the Tamsui River under the slanting sun.

3. Before the mountain: Wugu, at the southern foot of Mount Guanyin, on the north bank of the Tamsui River.

Background:

In October 2007 I returned to Taiwan for my father's funeral. On a night trip on the Tamsui River, we talked about the old days. The years go on, things change and the stars move; my career and family had settled abroad, and my mother back home had entered her twilight years. Whether to stay or to go was hard to decide. Watching the rolling river flow east, I could not help sighing. April 4, 2009, Qingming Festival, in

Los Angeles

47: You Lie Among the White Clouds 【君臥白雲】

The mighty waters of the Yangtze,
wind and clouds surging over Mount Wu.
You left riding the colored clouds;
last night I dreamed of the Jialing.
The Tamsui pours into the vast sea;
the sunset lights the lovely clouds.
The white clouds are fit for you to rest on;
you lie among the white clouds.

Notes:

1. Mount Wu: 2,400 meters above sea level, spanning Hubei, Chongqing and Hunan. Yuan Zhen of the Tang wrote: "Once you have seen the vast sea, other waters are hard to call water; apart from Mount Wu, no clouds are truly clouds" (曾經滄海難為水，除卻巫山不是雲), implying that the love between husband and wife is both deep and broad and perfect, like the waters of the vast sea and the clouds of Mount Wu.

2. Jialing: the Jialing River, a tributary of the upper Yangtze. It takes its name from the Jialing Valley northeast of Feng County, Shaanxi, through which it flows, and it joins the Yangtze at Chongqing.

3. Tamsui (淡江): the Tamsui River in Taiwan.

4. Wenying (雯英): beautiful clouds.

5. Fit for you to rest on: in "The Lord in the Clouds" (雲中君) from Qu Yuan's (屈原) "Nine Songs" (九歌) there are lines such as "Robes of brilliant colors like flowers, shining as bright as the sun and moon" (華采衣兮若英，與日月兮齊光). The ancients revered the clouds as a god and raised them to the same rank as the sun god. "The white clouds are fit for you to rest on" means a dwelling the mortal world can gaze at but never reach.

Background:

The heaviest blow my mother suffered in her life was losing the ones she loved most. First her youngest son died, and the next year her husband passed away. The day before yesterday, November 27, 2007, still within 49 days of my father's death, my mother could not sleep and lay awake for a long time. In the early morning she wrote a seven-character quatrain that tugged at my heartstrings: "At midnight, in the third watch, I find no peace; tossing and turning all night, I cannot sleep. I reach for the pillow beside me but he is not there; tears stream down and soak my robe." (夜半三更人未靜，徹夜輾轉難入眠。徊探枕邊人不見，涔涔涙水滿衿衫。)

Last night and tonight, I dreamed again and again of my father and mother, sometimes in Chongqing, sometimes in Taiwan; the Yangtze, the Jialing and the Tamsui all flowed through my dreams. Chongqing is where my parents married in 1939, and the charm of the Ba-Shu region left a deep impression on them. When I woke, I wrote a five-character regulated poem in answer to my mother's verse.

Written November 29, 2007, in

Los Angeles

48: To the Tune of "Cai Sang Zi" (Picking Mulberries) 【採桑子】

Chinese culture in Vietnam,
handed down branch by branch.
On the west shore of the South China Sea,
the coastal cities are like a string of pearls.
Haiphong, Saigon, the Gulf of Tonkin,
a sea of clouds meeting the sky.
The Red River, Annam;
from Lang Son one looks north to Zhennan Pass.
Light gauze sways on long qipao-style gowns,
as the ladies vie in beauty.
The gourmet's greatest love:
beef pho with spring rolls.
Lychees, durians, jackfruit,
abundant every year.
Beacon smoke everywhere,
thirty years ravaged by war.
The two Vietnams united, the system changed;
the future is bright.
Many hearts make a fortress,
striving to be first in Southeast Asia.
One night the spring wind blows a dream of home;
in the dream I return home.
Where is home?
I hurry after the spring wind to Cholon.

Notes:

1. Nanhai: the South China Sea.

2. Coastal cities: Vietnam's territory is long and narrow, facing the South China Sea to the east; its coastal cities, from Haiphong in the north to Nha Trang in the south, are like a pearl necklace.

3. Haiphong: a centrally governed city in northern Vietnam, Vietnam's third-largest city and the largest port in the north.

4. Saigon: renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1976; the former capital of the Republic of Vietnam and Vietnam's second-largest city, after Hanoi.

5. Dongjing Bay: Gulf

of Tonkin. The Vietnamese call it Bac Bo Gulf (the Northern Gulf). It is an enclosed gulf and the sea boundary between China and Vietnam.

6. Red River: it rises at Longhu Mountain in China, flows through Yunnan into Indochina, and enters the sea at the Gulf of Tonkin in northern Vietnam.

7. Annam: today's Vietnam; China's Tang dynasty set up the Protectorate General to Pacify the South (安南都護府) here.

8. Lang Son: capital of Lang Son Province in northern Vietnam, 130 kilometers from the capital, Hanoi; from the border to Zhennan Pass in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of mainland China is only 18 kilometers.

9. Jackfruit: a tropical fruit that generally weighs 5 to 20 kilograms. It is sweet, and its seeds are rich in starch and can be eaten raw or cooked. It is also called the queen of fruits.

10. Beacon smoke everywhere: after World War II ended, France returned to Vietnam in 1946, and the Vietnamese Communist army led by Ho Chi Minh launched an all-out attack on the French. The war lasted 9 years, until France and the Viet Cong signed an agreement in Geneva dividing Vietnam into North and South. The Communists set up a government in the North, and the South established the free and democratic Republic of Vietnam. The Communists then kept attacking the South, and later the US military took over the resistance, until South Vietnam fell to communism in 1975. In all, the Vietnam wars lasted 30 years.

11. Cholon: on the west bank of the Saigon River, the largest Chinese community in Vietnam.

Background:

After the victory in the war against Japan, my wife, still a small child, emigrated to Vietnam with her parents, and she came to Taiwan in 1971. Two years later she went back to Vietnam to visit family for a month. On April 30, 1975, North and South Vietnam were unified. By 2010, 35 years later, Vietnam is no longer the Vietnam of old. She hopes to have the chance to return to her old home in Vietnam once more and remember.

April 30, 2010, the 35th anniversary of the unification of North and South Vietnam, written in Los Angeles

49: The Fragrance of Plum and Orchid 【梅蘭芳香】

In the cold season of the Rockies, plum blossoms in the snow;
the wild geese spread their wings and fly southeast.
In the mountain forests of the isthmus, orchids are fragrant;
plum and orchid, in two lands, fragrant at the same time.

Notes:

1. Luoji (落磯, the Rockies): the foothills of the Rocky Mountains west of Denver, Colorado.

2. Wild geese: a kind of swan, also called the wild goose; in the US and Canada it is a nationally protected animal of the second class. Wild geese are full of spirit, encouraging their companions in flight with their calls, and they fly south to escape the cold winter.

3. Isthmus: Panama in Central America faces the sea on two sides and land on two sides; this kind of landform is called an "isthmus."

4. Mountain forests: Panama has many mountains and tropical rainforests, and in the forests wild orchids of all kinds can be seen everywhere.

5. Plum and orchid in two lands: the plum blossoms of the Rocky Mountain foothills and the orchids of Panama, one in the cold winter, one in the tropical forest, blooming at the same time.

Background:

In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, every January is already deep winter; heavy snow flies and the plum blossoms open.

At the same time, about 1,800 kilometers to the southeast, in the mountain forests of Panama, the orchids are in full bloom. I remembered the happy times, when I lived in Panama, paddling a dugout canoe with friends into the tropical rainforest to gather orchids.

Written January 21, 2005, in

Denver

50: At Ease in the Red Dust 【紅麈自在】

Blue sky, white clouds, a body at ease;
life flies through the great void of the universe.
By fate I was born into the red dust,
to break free of the delusions and karma that turn the wheel of rebirth.
The years pass in a moment, and I wake startled from a dream;
forgetting worldly affairs, I drink a jin of wine.
The rise and fall of the ages I leave to a smile;
broad-minded and calm, a heart as pure as ice.

Notes:

1. A body at ease: from Master Sheng Yen's (聖嚴法師) "an untroubled mind" (得心自在): "When the mind is at ease, the body is at ease; when body and mind are at ease, blessings and wisdom are at ease." A body at ease means good physical health; a mind at ease means mental soundness, with no obstacle in advancing or retreating.

2. Taixu (太虛, the great void): an illusory realm, a state of emptiness and loneliness.

3. Red dust (紅塵): the bustling secular world.

4. Huoye (惑業, delusion and karma): what Buddhists call afflictions and obstacles.

5. Lunhui (輪迴, rebirth): what Buddhists call the turning wheel of life: all living beings die and are born again, are born and die again, birth and death without end. After death the soul turns and is reborn as another person. This differs in meaning from what Christian doctrine calls "eternal life."

6. Wanghuai (忘懷, forgetting): not keeping gain and loss in one's heart. From "The Biography of Mr. Five Willows" (五柳先生傳) by Tao Yuanming (陶淵明) of the Jin.

7. Drinking a jin (酌一斤): drinking freely.

8. Tiandan (恬淡): the first chapter of the "Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic" (黃帝內經), "On the Innocence of High Antiquity" (上古天真論), says: "Calm, simple, empty, with the spirit kept within" (恬淡虛無，精神內守). It means that if people let go of their desire for fame, gain and sensual pleasures, their troubles will naturally lessen.

9. Bingxin (冰心, a heart of ice): noble in character, not eager for honor and gain, a heart as if holding ice. "Ice" is a metaphor for the purity of the "heart."

Wang Changling (王昌齡) of the Tang, "Seeing Off Xin Jian at Hibiscus Tower" (芙蓉樓送辛漸): "If my family and friends in Luoyang ask after me, tell them: a heart of ice in a jade pot." (洛陽親友如相問，一片冰心在玉壺)

Background:

In January 2009, the Los Angeles Chinese-language radio program "At Ease in the Red Dust" (紅麈自在) looked at life from the viewpoint of the teachings of the world's great religions, with a segment called "The Buddha's wisdom: freedom from fate." After hearing it, I was moved to express my feelings.

Written January 26, 2009, in Los Angeles

51: Homesick on the Winter Solstice 【冬至思鄉】

The long night stretches on, the snow swirls;
the bitter cold wind rings the wind chimes.
The silver land lies beneath the moonlight;
on the night of the winter solstice I long for home.

Notes:

1. Winter solstice: among the twenty-four solar terms, the "winter solstice" is the twenty-second, and it is also one of the eight festivals, called the "winter festival." It falls between December 21 and 23 of the solar calendar. In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the longest night of the year.

2. Winter solstice poems: from the Tang and Song there are more than two hundred, describing two kinds of feelings, some positive and sunny, others full of sorrow and longing.

Du Fu (杜甫) of the Tang, "Winter Solstice" (冬至): "The seasons of heaven and the affairs of men press on day by day; at the winter solstice the yang is born and spring comes again." (天時人事日相催，冬至陽生春又來。) And: "Year after year on the solstice I am always a stranger; suddenly poverty and sorrow bog me down." (年年至日長為客，忽忽窮愁泥剎人。)

Background:

Long kept overseas, with time slipping by: on the winter solstice of 2008 I was in Denver, Colorado. Heavy snow was falling and the land was silver, and it made me think of my family in my faraway hometown.

52: Desolate Dongting 【寂落洞庭】

A thousand li of the Xiao and Xiang, their waters bright with rosy clouds;
a mournful zither tune plays on the Xiang River.
The painted pleasure boats on the lake are hard to find again;
fishing boats singing at dusk are now only a memory.
Endless are the songs of feeling, past and present;
where can that lovely scenery be found?
From afar I mourn the goddesses of the Xiang, as clouds hide the moon;
lonely Dongting is desolate.

Notes:

1. Dongting: Dongting Lake, one of China's five great freshwater lakes, in northern Hunan Province, with an area of 2,579 square kilometers, second only to Poyang Lake. It was once China's largest freshwater lake, but because of extensive farming and industry in the lake area, its waters have shrunk greatly.

2. Xiaoxiang (瀟湘): another name for Hunan Province; the term dates from the Western Han. Hunan has four great rivers, the Xiang, the Zi, the Yuan and the Li, all of which flow into Dongting Lake. The longest river in Hunan is the Xiang, which flows past major cities such as Hengyang, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan and Changsha.

Xiao: the Xiao River, the largest tributary of the upper Xiang.

Xiang: the Xiang River.

Xiaoxiang: the Xiao and the Xiang together.

3. Xiang'e (湘娥, the goddesses of the Xiang): legend says Emperor Shun had two consorts, Ehuang (娥皇) and Nüying (女英), who, grieving at Emperor Shun's death, threw themselves into the river and became goddesses of the Xiang River.

Background:

The Dongting Lake area of Hunan Province has been overdeveloped, and the Xiang River in particular is badly polluted with heavy metals. Thousands of mu of farmland can no longer be farmed, hundreds of thousands of people have problems with their drinking water, and the fish catch is less than thirty percent of what it was before the 1970s. The Xiang River and Dongting Lake are not what they used to be; it is heartbreaking, and the lovely scenery of the past has become a memory.

53: The Hook Moon and the Painted Tower 【月鉤畫樓】

The seventh day of the seventh month, at the fifth watch;
deep in sleep, I dreamed my late brother came back.
Like drifting clouds and flowing water, the music of his violin rose;
heavenly music floated down from the sky.
The clear first-quarter moon hooks the painted tower;
lingering notes curl in through the window.
His graceful bearing is just as before;
husband and wife, deep in love, by the Milky Way.

Notes:

1. Painted tower (畫樓): an ornately decorated building. Li Qingzhao (李清照) of the Song, to the tune "Lang Tao Sha" (浪淘沙): "Outside the curtain, the fifth watch; the dream is blown away without a trace. Climbing the painted tower again, with whom?" (簾外五更天，吹夢無蹤。畫樓重上與誰同)

2. The seventh day of the seventh month: the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. Chinese folk legend says that magpies build a bridge across the Milky Way so that the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can meet on the magpie bridge; it is also called Chinese Valentine's Day.

3. First-quarter moon (上弦月): on the seventh and eighth days of each lunar month, the moon is 90 degrees from the sun. It is a half circle, with its bowstring on top and the back of the bow to the right, shaped like a hook.

Background:

July 31, 2006, was also the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. At about four o'clock this morning, my late brother Chen Yong (陳勇) came into my dream. Graceful and dashing, tall and handsome as ever, holding a violin, he floated down from the sky. Husband and wife, deep in love, met at the tower by the Milky Way.

August 1, 2006

In Taipei

54: Spring's Bloom Slips Away 【春華縱逝】

Willow strands, green thread by thread;
peach blossoms, dots of red.
Roses blooming everywhere;
bees and butterflies dancing lightly.
The stream rolls on;
deep green, spring is nearing its end.
Spring's face slips away in a moment;
what remains is the loneliness of parting.

Notes:

1. Chunhua (春華, spring bloom): describes a person in the time of life full of youthful vigor. Ouyang Xiu (歐陽修), "Jade Spring Tower" (玉春樓): "Snow clouds suddenly turn to clusters of spring clouds; gradually I feel the year's beauty is worth beholding." (雪雲乍變春雲簇，漸覺年華堪送目)

We were fleeing as refugees, but we children, too young to understand, felt it was like a trip; my mother's feelings and ours were completely different.

In late October the little boat sailed at night on the South China Sea. The wind was calm and the waves still, the moonlight was bright, whales and dolphins followed us, gulls chased the white clouds, and we lay on the roof gazing up at the stars.

Decades later, I recorded this old story in a poem.

Written September 2, 2008, the third day of the eighth lunar month, my mother's 84th birthday, in Los Angeles

57: By Boat Past Passes and Mountains 【舟渡關山】

Heavy and low, a lone boat passes the passes and mountains,
forlorn on the southern bank of the Mo River.
Cry after cry, the wild geese's calls fade into the distance;
drifting like twigs and duckweed, we find the forked road hard.
Under the moon and stars we crossed the Qiongzhou Strait;
Cangwu and Dan'er lie in the South China Sea.
Alone and lost, I lament that the road has run out;
full of worry, I cry out long, and the wind comes from heaven.

Notes:

1. Mo River: the Moyang River, west of the city of Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, which enters the South China Sea at Beijin Port. In October 1949, in the "Battle of Yangjiang" of the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists, the Nationalist army was routed here, and no one knew whether my father was alive or dead. My mother and her children, aboard a small iron-hulled boat from Guangzhou, reached this place, where the boat anchored to take on supplies.

2. Drifting like twigs and duckweed (梗泛萍漂): a metaphor for wandering without a home.

3. Qiongzhou: the Qiongzhou Strait. The little boat was sailing from Yangjiang toward its destination, Zhanjiang, when the Guangdong troops mutinied and went over to the Communists. The boat could not get in, so it crossed the Qiongzhou Strait instead and went on to Haikou.

4. Cangwu (蒼梧): Hainan Island. Su Shi's poem says: "Cangwu alone lies at one corner of the sky." (蒼梧獨在天一方)

5. Dan'er (儋耳): today's Danzhou City, Hainan Province, where Su Shi was banished.

6. Jie (嗟): to lament.

7. Tuqiong (途窮, the road runs out): a metaphor for having no way out, being in desperate straits.

8. Huaiyou (懷憂): weighed down by sorrow, full of worry.

Background:

On October 13, 1949 (year 38 of the Republic), Guangzhou was abandoned. My mother, alone with four small children, boarded a little boat and, by way of Yangjiang and Zhanjiang, finally reached Haikou. As the boat sailed the South China Sea, one trouble followed another, with danger on every side.

My mother told us children about those scenes and what she felt at the time, and I put this piece of history into words.

The sons and daughters of a great era of war had hard fates, but they did not fear hardship; they defended the country with their lives and bore witness to history. The fate of the nation is closely bound up with the fate of each person; without a country, how can there be a home?

58: To the Tune of "Dian Jiang Chun" (Rouged Lips) 【點絳脣】

Flutes and reed pipes play sweetly;
Gui Hill, Duxiu Peak and the waters of Guilin.
The lovely one gazes intently;
in the dream, colored clouds fly.
Heartbroken at the final parting,
you flew alone out of the red dust.
Just as I wake, heaven and the human world;
tonight the curtain of night falls.

Notes:

1. Gui Hill and Duxiu (桂山獨秀): in the city of Guilin, Guangxi, hills and water set each other off, surrounded by forests of peaks; the two hills Gui and Duxiu are the most famous.

2. Waters of Guilin: two rivers flow through the city of Guilin, the Li River and the Taohua River. The saying "the hills and waters of Guilin are the finest under heaven" (桂林山水甲天下) is because they are unique, unlike anywhere else.

3. Ningdi (凝睇): to gaze intently.

4. Juebie (訣別): parted forever, one in heaven and one on earth.

5. Quelaishi (卻來時): at just that moment; the moment of waking from a dream.

6. Mulian chui (幕簾垂, the curtain falls): night falls, making the loneliness even deeper.

Background:

Nearly eight months after my father died, my mother met him in a dream for the first time, in Guilin. Guilin is where Dad and Mom first met, and they were engaged there in 1938.

1 Morakot, the disaster of the century,
2 central and southern Taiwan trembling in fear.
3 Raging waters drowned and destroyed homes;
4 the August 8 floods, heaven without mercy.
5 River levees burst, unable to withstand the blow;
6 streams and rivers turned into ditches overnight.
7 A century of planning for the nation's land and water
8 was no match for one torrential downpour.
9 The Jinshuai Hotel collapsed in an instant,
10 a shocking sight beyond belief. 11 Xiaolin Village, cut off from the world,
12 vanished like smoke and ash in a single night.
13 The Alishan road was broken like a grieving heart;
14 the beauty is gone, the high mountains green no more.
15 The victims, speechless, question heaven;
16 suffering brings out the goodness in human nature.
17 Tzu Chi's love fills the world,
18 rushing to save lives in Taiwan's disaster zones.
19 The ROC armed forces gave their all in the rescue;
20 officers and soldiers, worn out, were rushed to the hospital.
21 Comrades went deep into the disaster zones,
22 digging bodies out of the mudslides with bare hands.
23 Volunteer firefighters braved danger to deliver supplies;
24 heedless of life and death, some were swept under by the flood.
25 Air rescue in terrible weather;
26 a helicopter crashed, its crew killed, leaving heroes' names.
27 Doctors and nurses gave their love,
28 bringing medicine deep into the mountains to save lives.
29 The heroes of Jiamu, resilient lives,
30 fought the danger and gave aid without their names known.
31 Caring mothers mobilized together,
32 with boxed meals and good food to restore strength.
33 Government and opposition alike moved people's hearts in the relief work;
34 Taiwan earned high respect.
35 The Chinese world vied to donate;
36 the mainland lent a hand in brotherly feeling.
37 Warm, comfortable prefab houses,
38 safe and reliable, gave people confidence.
39 International media praised it together;
40 more than thirty countries sent their warmth.
41 Thinking about water management must change;
42 rivers must be managed with care.
43 We took land from the water, and the rivers struck back;
44 the cross-basin water diversion raised suspicions.
45 Overdevelopment in the race for the economy,
46 tourist spots everywhere.
47 Construction management is full of abuses;
48 hotels rise up on sand.
49 Racking their brains to please the voters,
50 they put winning elections first.
51 The public's boiling anger is understandable;
52 the government must rush relief at lightning speed.
53 Politicians seized a good opportunity,
54 criticizing mercilessly, reasonable or not.
55 Natural disasters come for a reason;
56 prepare before the rain and seize the initiative.
57 Rebuilding after the disaster is urgent;
58 criticize later, fairly and reasonably.
59 Examine the real causes rationally;
60 environmental protection must be thoroughly enforced.
61 Changes in the atmosphere must be clearly recognized;
62 living with nature begins with ourselves.
63 Foreign powers interfered in domestic affairs,
64 arrogant, prejudiced and in the wrong.
65 Leadership was challenged;
66 disaster prevention planning was questioned.
67 Disaster relief on the two sides of the Strait was not alike;
68 their strategies and execution make quite a comparison.
69 The mainland media backed their government; 70 in Taiwan, relief work drew criticism instead.
71 Resigning to take responsibility showed true character;
72 a disaster relief mechanism was quickly set up.
73 Wrong decisions must not be repeated;
74 do not betray your conscience for elections.
75 Long-standing ills must be carefully removed;
76 love the people with all your heart and strength.
77 Taiwan's situation is still grave;
78 we hope the government will work even harder.
79 Sustainable management must not stop;
80 in wind and rain, confidence grows.

Notes:

1. Typhoon Morakot: on August 8, 2009, it caused Taiwan's flood of the century.

9. Jinshuai Hotel: a tourist hotel in Zhiben, Taitung. In the August 8 floods it was swept away by the water, and the whole building collapsed in an instant.

11. Xiaolin Village: a mountain village in Jiaxian District, Kaohsiung City, wiped out in the August 8 floods.

29. Jiamu: Jiamu Village, Wutai Township, Pingtung County, an Indigenous village.

71. Resigning to take responsibility: on May 20, 2008, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office as the 12th President of the Republic of China, and Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) became Premier. On September 10 of the following year the whole cabinet resigned, taking political responsibility for the August 8 floods.

Background:

Drawing on Chinese and foreign media reports of the time, I wrote 80 lines of seven characters to record this piece of history.

September 11, 2009, in

Los Angeles

62: A Farewell Banquet 【餞別】

The wild geese fly ten thousand li, mountains beyond mountains;
willow strands and the lotus pond beside the long pavilion.
With immortals' wine in golden cups, the parting song begins;
once you go, in what year will we meet again?

Notes:

1. Mountains beyond mountains: from Li Shutong's "Farewell" (送別): "Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, fragrant grass green to the sky; the evening wind stirs the willows, the flute's notes fade; the setting sun, mountains beyond mountains." (長亭外，古道邊，芳草碧連天，晚風拂柳，笛聲殘，夕陽山外山) 2. Willow strands: liu (柳, willow) sounds like liu (留, to stay), and si (絲, strand) sounds like si (思, to long for). The ancients often used "willow strands" to express the endless wish of those seeing someone off to keep the traveler, and their longing for him.

3. Long pavilion: Yan Shu (晏殊) of the Song, to the tune "Ta Suo Xing" (踏莎行): "Parting songs at the farewell feast, a farewell banquet at the long pavilion; the fragrant dust already parts us, yet you still turn your face back," and "Endless, endless is the sorrow of parting; my thoughts search to the ends of the earth." (祖席離歌，長亭別宴，香塵已隔猶回面) (無窮無盡是離愁，天涯地角尋思遍) When the ancients saw friends off, they often held a farewell banquet at the long pavilion.

4. Liuxia (流霞): an immortals' wine in Chinese mythology.

5. Jinzun (金樽): an exquisite wine cup.

Background:

In 2008 the US subprime mortgage storm set off a global financial crisis. Mainland China was not hit very hard, and instead recruited talent from overseas.

The son of a friend of forty years got a well-paid job in Shanghai and became a returnee scholar, and the old couple went back with their son to settle in their homeland. We arranged to say goodbye at the Liufang Pavilion in the Suzhou garden of the historic Huntington Library gardens, not knowing in what year we would meet again.

October 6, 2009

Written in Los Angeles

63: In the Snap of a Finger 【彈指瞬間】

Early autumn of the jihai year at Mamingtan;
the sound of reading rang out by the Song Pavilion.
Spreading our wings on the wind, we raced toward our futures,
building careers and families, full of joy.
The younger classes command respect, a true comfort;
our roots go on, year after year without end.
Fifty years gone in the snap of a finger;
I do not sigh in regret, but praise the present.

Notes:

1. Tanzhi (彈指, a snap of the fingers): a unit of time in Buddhism, from the Sanskrit of India

Acchata; it is often used as a metaphor for the brevity of time.

2. Jihai (己亥): year 48 of the Republic (1958).

3. Mamingtan (馬明潭): in Mingxing Village, Wenshan District, Taipei, the former site of the Combined Logistics Finance School.

4. Song Pavilion (嵩亭): it stands on a hill on the Finance School campus; General Wu Songqing (吳嵩慶), an elder of the Republic of China's military supply service, inscribed its plaque.

5. The younger ones command respect (後生可畏): from the Analects, "Zi Han" (論語．子罕): "The young are to be held in awe; how do we know that those to come will not equal those of today?" (後生可畏，焉知來者之不如今也) Here it means that the later classes always surpassed the earlier ones, which commands respect.

6. Chouchang (惆悵, regret): from "Nine Changes" in the Songs of Chu (楚辭．九辯). More than 30 classmates from our class and the later classes have been promoted to general, but there are also some whose paths went smoothly and some whose official careers did not go well.

Background:

In the autumn of 1959 I entered the sixth class of the Finance School, and in the snap of a finger 50 years have passed. My classmates are preparing a reunion and publishing a commemorative booklet, and they asked me for some writing as a memento, to join in the occasion.

Written January 18, 2009, in

Los Angeles

64: Hazy Moonlight 【月色朦朧】

Under a hazy crescent moon I look for old songs;
old tunes sung today bring back many memories.
So many things from the long years of my life
live on in the memories of words and music.
The moon sets over the lotus pond amid the croaking of frogs;
through the window screen I gaze at the moon, the moon so hazy.
I still remember the moon of home in those years;
this moon and that moon, the same in four places.

Notes:

1. Menglong (朦朧, hazy): the blurred look of things. Lai Hu (來鵠) of the Tang, "Writing My Feelings at a Mountain Inn on the Cold Food Festival" (寒食山館書情): "After the soul of Shu has cried, spring is lonely; after the soul of Chu has chanted, the moon is hazy." (蜀魄啼來春寂寞，楚魂吟後月朦朧)

2. Gesha (隔紗): through a gauze window. Ni Zan (倪瓚) of the Yuan, "Bamboo Branch Song" (竹枝詞): "Long I play my hidden sorrow behind the gauze window." (長彈幽恨隔紗窗)

3. The moon sets over the pond: from Zhang Ji (張繼) of the Tang, "A Night Mooring by Maple Bridge" (楓橋夜泊): "The moon sets, crows cry, frost fills the sky; river maples and fishing fires face my sorrowful sleep." (月落烏啼霜滿天，江楓漁火對愁眠) Four places: Shanghai, Taipei, Panama and Los Angeles.

Background:

This night the moonlight was hazy. I listened to the midnight program on the Chinese-language radio station, which played beloved old songs. It began with "The Ancient Moon Shines on Today's Dust" (古月照今麈), followed by "Hazy Moon, Hazy Birds" (月朦朧鳥朦朧), "A Night Without the Moon" (沒有月亮的晚上), "Under That Silver Moonlight" (在那銀色的月光下), "The Crescent Moon Shines on the Nine Provinces" (月兒彎彎照九州) and more. In this scene and this mood, I could not help recalling some old memories, all connected with the moon.

In late April 1949, a month before Shanghai fell in the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists, we were heading back to Qingdao. As we boarded a ship at the Shiliupu passenger wharf on the Huangpu River, we heard a Jiangsu folk song, "The Crescent Moon Shines on the Nine Provinces," with a sad melody. This folk song dates from the Jianyan reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song (1127–1130) and tells of the suffering of ordinary people scattered by war. In 1952 Tu Guangqi (屠光啓) made a film in Hong Kong based on this folk song; the theme song and the film had the same title, "The Crescent Moon Shines on the Nine Provinces," with music by Liang Yueyin (梁樂音) and lyrics by Li Junqing (李雋青).

In March 1979, seven months before I left Taiwan for Panama, the whole family went to the Jingmei Theater to see the film "Hazy Moon, Hazy Birds." My elder son, Anthony, seven years old that year, could sing the film's theme song without missing a word or a note. "Hazy Moon, Hazy Birds" was made into a film in 1978, with lyrics by Chiung Yao (瓊瑤) and music by Gu Yue (古月).

In May 1992, at a camp for young people of Chinese descent held in the Panama Canal scenic area, I taught the campers to sing "Under That Silver Moonlight." The song comes from a Russian folk song; in 1938 the composer Wang Luobin (王洛賓) adapted it in Xinjiang into a Chinese (Mandarin) song.

"The Ancient Moon Shines on Today's Dust" was an album, and its title song, released in 1986 by the overseas Chinese singer Wen Zhang (文章), with music by Tan Jianchang (譚健常) and lyrics by Xiao Xuan (小軒), sung by Wen Zhang. "A history of spring and autumn, a thousand years of a lonely minister's tears; success and failure cannot last long, rise and fall turn in an instant." (一部春秋史，千年孤臣淚。成敗難長久，興亡轉瞬間) Every line tugs at the heartstrings.

I could not help remembering the 1989 US invasion of Panama, too. On December 20, 1989, US forces attacked Panama. Countless missiles streaked across the sky, the guns thundered, and flares lit up a night without a moon. I watched the whole course of the war, and I will never forget it.

The song "A Night Without the Moon" was sung in the Hong Kong film "Tale of a Frightened Soul" (驚魂記), with lyrics by Shen Hua (沈華) and music by Qi Xiangtang (綦湘棠). Written September 21, 2009, in

Los Angeles

65: Mourning One Who Died Young 【懷殤】

I remember those years:
Buddhist chants and the dawn bell at the temple;
the water clock run dry,
the cold lamp dim, the incense burner spent.
Parted by death,
sixty cold autumns, vast and endless;
my heart mourns the one who died young,
and one day we will relive those mornings.

Notes:

1. Shang (殤): to die young, before reaching adulthood, as in the words shangzhe (殤折) and shangyao (殤夭).

2. Fanyin (梵音): the voice of the Buddha.

3. Zhongxiao (鐘曉): the sound of the bell at dawn.

4. Genglou (更漏, the water clock): an instrument for telling time by dripping water; at night the ancients read the time from the water clock. Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹), "Dream of the Red Chamber" (紅樓夢): "Unable to unknit my brows, unable to wait out the water clock till dawn." (展不開眉頭，挨不明更漏)

5. "The cold lamp dim, the incense burner spent": from Li Shangyin's "Remembering Master Zhuyi" (憶住一師): "The incense burner has burned out, the cold lamp is dim; the boy opens the door to snow covering the pines." (烟爐銷盡寒燈晦，童子開門雪滿松) The whole line means: the water in the clock has dripped away, the lamp on the cold night has burned to ash, and the incense in the burner has burned out.

Background:

It was bitterly cold outside. At night I read Li Shangyin's "Remembering Master Zhuyi." Today is also my second younger brother's birthday, and I thought of the days we spent together as children. My second younger brother, Changyan (昌嚴), was the fifth child; he was born on January 13, 1950, and died of illness on July 4, 1952, having lived only 924 days. In the autumn and winter of 1951, I was in the sixth grade of primary school, and we lived in Zhongmiao Village, Miaoli Township, Miaoli County. Every holiday, early in the morning, I carried him on my back to play at a temple not far from our home. A few officers and soldiers were stationed at the temple, guarding the telephone switchboard; my father was then a major and deputy commander of a signal battalion. My second brother died 55 years ago; I wonder where he is now.

Evening of January 13, 2007

Written in Denver

Afterword to Selected Poems of Enduring Love 【寫在律韻情深詩詞選集之後】

In 2020, the gengzi year, COVID-19 pneumonia ravaged the globe and turned human life upside down; countries around the world imposed strict controls and stay-at-home quarantine.

I stayed deep inside my home and garden and did not set foot outside the door for more than a year, one of the hardest tests of my life.

After the Lunar New Year of 2021, the xinchou year, bored with nothing to do, I had the idea of taking out the drafts of the poems I had spent three years writing ten years before, and polishing and organizing them.

Starting on February 15, the fourth day of the first lunar month, I worked on one or two poems a day, and by April 17 I had chosen 65 out of nearly 80, about twenty-four thousand characters, completing the first stage of my poetry. I feel I still have some of life's afterglow left, and I want to keep writing, to leave a little color in my life.

I listened to poems at three and read poems at five, but only at fifty did I begin to understand poetry deeply, and only at sixty did I start to write it. All of it came from my love of poetry, and also from the early teaching of my late mother. My mother also wrote a very few poems, songs from the spring of her heart; I spent some time putting them in order as the appendix to this collection. Writing poetry not only brings out the musical potential of the Chinese language, so that, as they say, there is song in poetry and poetry in song; it also shows the charm of the lyrical tradition.

Written April 19, 2021, in

Los Angeles

Appendix 【附錄】

My mother did not have much schooling: during the War of Resistance against Japan, in Qiyang, Hunan, she got only as far as the second year of junior high school. Behind my grandmother's back she read "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "The Romance of the West Chamber," and she read through the "Complete Tang Poems" (全唐詩), "Water Margin" (水滸傳) and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (三國演義); you could call her a lover of literature. In Taiwan she wrote some little poems when the mood took her, but no one knows where they ended up.

My mother's best poems were all written after our family moved to public housing in Nangang in 2001 (year 90 of the Republic).

In chronological order:

1, Deep in the Courtyard 【庭院深處】

Living simply in a fine little wooden house,
deep in the courtyard, content with heaven's will.
Birdsong, fragrant flowers, delightful scenery,
fresh fruit to pick with joy in all four seasons.
The pond and the fish pool reflect each other;
in the back garden there is a little farm plot too.
Carrying a hoe, tending flowers, free and easy,
chanting poems and playing with words, like an immortal.

Notes:

Letian (樂天): content with heaven and accepting one's fate (樂天知命).

Background:

In May 2003 my parents came to the US to visit their children, just as I was moving into a new house, and they kept fond memories of the surroundings here. After returning to Taiwan, my mother wrote the seven-character regulated poem above.

2, A Marriage Made in Heaven 【天賜姻緣】

Amid the hills and waters of Guilin we first met;
obeying my mother, we married to make a home.
Through the War of Resistance against Japan and the civil war we wandered,
poor, but not afraid of hardship.
We leaned on each other sixty-eight years;
but alas, you have left me to become an immortal alone.
Though a house full of children and grandchildren brings contentment,
ten thousand threads of sorrow keep me from sleep.

Notes:

Sixty-eight years: my parents met in Guilin, married in Chongqing in 1939 (year 28 of the Republic), and my father died in Taipei in 2007 (year 96 of the Republic); they were a loving couple for 68 years.

Background:

My father died on October 9, 2007, and the great love of my mother's life was gone. Alone in an empty room, my mother was desolate; seeing his belongings, she was heartbroken. On the night of the winter solstice, December 22, she wrote this seven-character regulated poem of mourning.

3, Praying to the Holy Mother 【虔求聖母】

I stand before the Holy Mother's shrine;
her loving light appears before my eyes.
Eyes closed, I pray devoutly:
may my family be safe forever.

Background:

At the Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal on Yanji Street in Taipei, a stone statue of the Virgin Mary stands in the church courtyard, lifelike and radiating loving light.

My mother has led the family to Mass here for 30 years, and before entering the church she always stands in silent prayer before the statue.

That day there was a cold wind and a fine rain. It was her first time at church after my father's death, and my mother was overcome with grief, tears streaming down her face. That night she wrote a five-character quatrain to keep the memory.

4, Longing and Longing 【思思念念】

This New Year's Eve my eyes stream with tears;
heaven and earth are silent, my heart is desolate.
Ten thousand sorrows weigh a thousand jin;
longing and longing, tears soak my robe.
Scenes of the past appear clearly before me;
but alas, we are parted by ten thousand heavens.
At midnight I hope to see you in a dream,
yet I can only question heaven, without words.

Background:

February 6, 2008 (year 97 of the Republic), was lunar New Year's Eve of the dinghai year; my father had been gone four months.

Except for two years in a row beginning in 1956 (year 45 of the Republic), when my father was a unit commander and spent New Year at camp with his fellow soldiers, this was the first time in 52 years that my father was not at home to spend New Year's Eve with the family. My mother still could not come out of the grief of losing her husband, and on New Year's Eve she wrote the lines above.

6, A Message That Cannot Be Sent 【寄不出的簡訊】

October 9, 2010, was Dad and Mom's 71st wedding anniversary, and my mother wrote my father "a message that cannot be sent":
My dear, today is our seventy-first wedding anniversary, and also the day you left your family on your long journey. You left so carefree and at ease, and in the blink of an eye it has been three years.
In these days of missing you, I have come out of my grief, because I know you are already at the side of our Heavenly Father, living happily and joyfully, and I am so glad for you. When I reach the end of life's journey, let's meet again.
Your wife, who misses you
October 9, 2010 (year 99 of the Republic)
(Selected Poems of Enduring Love
The End)