Passing Star

The Year of Fate
(Translated by Aka)

Fallen for the missing piece of an Angel
Mesmerized by words of the Devil
the Lord sat upon his cloud-edge seat
blinked and wrinkled his brow
then nodded for the story to proceed.

Fallen for a passionate diversion
for no longer than a flower is in perfection
As you stood next to me
and casually flashed into my vision
a light lacerated the clear May skies
and all was brightened.

One random day
on a star-crossed pathway
this ill-fated drama
was destined to play.

So very suddenly, fortune’s threads
wove intertwined lines
through the Heart of our hands.

The distance
before innocence became misplaced
to after Love’s bittersweet taste
measured only but a day.
Can’t ask it to stay
nor trace its way
Such, is the Year of Fate.
(That very moment \ a lifetime \ changed.)

The time we encountered the firework display
was a chance to reincarnate
but the Commanding Star passed by
and took you astray
without any goodbyes
a light year away.

———————————————-

T/N: Happy Chinese New Year/Valentines Day! My first lyric translation of the year!!! Right before the CNY too! I was totally obsessed with this song for about a month and finally decided to make an attempt at translation… ah the beauty of Chinese… (yes yes I’m a dork). I took quite a lot of liberties with this translation, both in selecting words and interpretation of the intentions of the lyric writer (the matchless Albert Lin Xi). Also, I decided to add a more “mystical” flavor to this translation, fully utilizing the various references to Chinese fortune telling. The story I told was basically of someone who (being egging on of both the Gods and the Devil) fell for the wrong person and ended up in heartbreak; an actor in a tragic play directed by the powers that be. Very typical story, but so beautifully told.

Chinese culture related clarifications:

Year of Fate – 流年 (liu2 nian2) actually means passing years or (in this particular song) a person’s fortune in a particular year. I had to tweak it a little to make it sound more poetic in English.
Commanding Star – 紫薇星 (zi3 wei1 xing1) This is the star of leaders and commanders. No standard translation; I’m using this particular translation for emphasis on the power and inescapable grasp of this star.
Lines in the Hands – In Chinese fortune telling, the lines in people’s palms tell their entire life’s tale, i.e. Palm Reading.

流年 (王菲)

愛上一個天使的缺點
用一種魔鬼的語言
上帝在雲端　只眨了一眨眼
最後眉一皺　頭一點

愛上一個認真的消遣
用一朵花開的時間
你在我旁邊　只打了個照面
五月的晴天　閃了電

有生之年　狹路相逢　終不能倖免
手心忽然長出　糾纏的曲線
懂事之前　情動以後　長不過一天
留不住　算不出　流年 (哪一年　讓一生　改變)

遇見一場煙火的表演
用一場輪迴的時間
紫微星流過　來不及說再見
已經遠離我　一光年

In the Mist

Zen (1)

What was said, or left unsaid
were forgotten
when you left
silently.

I let my tears hide
in the pages of this book.
Just like
those few Jasmine blossoms
from our youth.

Perhaps in an afternoon yet to come
they will take flight
suddenly
into a fragrant-less, sound-less
void.

And perhaps, at that time
outside the window
there would be rain
falling
ever so gently.

禪意（一） (席慕容)
當你沉默地離去
說過的　或沒說過的話
都已忘記
我將我的哭泣也夾在
書頁裏　好像
我們年輕時的那幾朵茉莉
也許會在多年後的
一個黃昏裏
從偶然翻開的扉頁中落下
沒有芳香　再無聲息
窗外那時　也許
會正落著細細的細細的雨

My dear friend Alejandro nails it again with this little comic strip. See the vertical note on the right side. I mentioned it to him in passing and I can’t believe he’s turned my rant into such a cute little strip.

Anyway… for all of you out there who are going the freelance route… it’s ok if no one (especially the parents) understands you/what you’re doing. As long as you are enjoying yourself and doing what you really want to do… it’s all worth it!

On a different note… this blog has been in hiatus. Hopefully in the near future I will find the time and energy to resurrect it. There’s certainly been some craziness in my life. But hey, that’s LIVING!

Hope everyone had a good new year!

I think it’s interesting how many people feel that guys and girls cannot be friends. There are only two sexes on this planet, and we can’t be friends? Isn’t that kind of wasteful?

The other day, on facebook, I saw a friend re-post his friend’s note about how in every man’s life there is a woman that he can never be with but the two can share many parts of their lives as well as be best friends, even with the other has found a partner. They will support each other to the end, without asking to be anything more than a friend. Easily said, but I sense ruefulness between the lines. The speaker WISHED he/she could be something more to the other person.

Friends? Lovers? Enemies?

I have also been told that if a guy wants to be friends with you, it’s generally only because he’s interested in you. Even if it doesn’t start that way, they always develop interest in you. And when they lose interest, then the relationship ends. Thus, men and women cannot JUST be friends. They always want something extra, something more from the other person.

But being a hard core Libra, I have the need to treat all equally and fairly, male or female. In that case, why can’t I be friends with both male and female? Gender aside, we’re all just human, no? Don’t we always SAY that we WANT to be treated equally? Well, I know, being a hypocrite is human nature, but let’s not blame too much on nature and throw our hands in the air.

I always joke about how I exist to disprove this theory that guys and girls can’t be friends, because my number of guy and girl friends are about equal. This doesn’t mean that during the time of the friendship, the two couldn’t have felt something romantic for each other, but you get pass it and then discover the other person for just a good “mind” or “person” and not reduced to a “male” or “female.” Though I admit, maybe it’s easier for some types of personalities.

True, Mars and Venus couldn’t get along. But that’s because they were Greek Gods (in their Roman names) and they were married – major case for drama. It doesn’t always have to be that way. Yes, we are man or woman, but that’s does not define who we are, at least not if you don’t want it to. Similarly, it shouldn’t be the defining factor of what gender the other person is. There must be some sort of attraction for people to want to be friends, perhaps I am naive, but I still believe that we can respect and love others just for who they are, and not what we want from them.

Well, this article in the Economist brought up that once you see a person a certain way, it’s difficult to change it. It’s also what people call the “first impression is hard to shake.” This works both ways. You can first see a person as good and then it’s hard to convince you that he’s bad… or you first see a person as bad and it’s hard to convince you otherwise. It’s extremely unfair, but it’s so very true. We’ve all been and we continue to be guilty of this.

I'm not that Innocent.

There’s no way to avoid it. Humans like to categorize things, as early as Aristotle and probably far beyond human records. It helps us cope with the complexities of life. The problem is that once we have established our opinion, we are extremely reluctant to overturn it, because that represents going back on our own egos and judgment. Big issue.

But this reluctance is what brings us to misunderstandings and false expectations. Humans are actually extremely versatile, but being versatile also means having a lack of security, so generally we choose stability over change. Once we have confined ourselves in a certain train of thought, we drop everything else. That is not to say we should divide our attention into a million tiny bits. There is a very simple thing that we can think about:

We are free humans (at least those that I know). This gives us the privilege to judge and choose. If we limit ourselves, then we have taken away our own choices.

For example, because I have always been a good student, I was expected to take (and so I “chose”) a suitable career path, let’s say a lawyer, and then work towards becoming a high power partner, though I really only like to make yummy desserts  and being buried in a stack of paperwork bores me to tears. Because I was smart, I was expected to… so I don’t even think of myself as being able to choose….

Another aspect of this is that once we have seen something in a certain light, we don’t like to change our perspective of it, which in effect rejects the notion that humans can change. Well, yes, they can, some more some less, and everyone at their own pace. If/when we change, other options come forth to greet us.

If you can see through all the levels of expectations, then you see that… some of us do not choose, some of us do chose, but there was always a choice.