Today is UN Chinese Language Day. Below is my re-interpretation of the poem Flood by T’ao Ch’ien (365 – 427), which he wrote about 1600 years ago. I used the Chinese Lushi style of poetry, implemented with six words per line. The English interpretation, in the right-hand column below, was performed by a Chinese speaking person from the original Chinese characters (Hanzi).

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Interpretation notes: I briefly studied the writing characters of China (Hanzi) and Japan (Kanji) many decades ago (the 1980s). I would love to see this poem in its original written form of 1600 years ago. The “Eight Directions” refers to the eight major points (directions) on a compass rose. Repeating a character subtlety changes its meaning. For example: one tree character is a tree, two together means woods, while three together means forest. The repeating of “wine” suggests multiple occurrences of the character and perhaps means a “barrel of wine” or some other measure of a large quantity. The character for the word “east” is a sun (rising) behind a tree, and therefore the reference to the eastern window could be interpreted as waiting to see the sun (daylight) again, or drinking through the night. Sadly, “neither boat nor carriage comes” leaving our poet stranded in the flood with no rescue in sight. Fortunately, he does have plenty of wine.

Linkd to dVerse Poets Pub — Poetics: China — Kingdom of the Poem, where Laura Bloomsbury is hosting tonight. The Poetics’ Challenge here is: Select any ONE of the above poems and with as many re-reads as you need, imagine what the poet has painted, what impressions are conveyed. Then re-interpret the poem in the Chinese LUSHI style:

• eight lines long of couplets – The first couplet should set-up the poem; the middle two couplets develop the theme, the final couple is conclusion
• each line must have the same number of words, either 5,6, or 7.
• a mono-rhyme is on every even numbered line
• Caesura (a pause) should separate clauses.