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A Lonely Traveller

A Country Lane

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9 Comments
by
angliholic
, 08-07-2010 at 10:42 AM (996 Views)
Walking on a small country lane,
My company is a homeward-bound buffalo in the evening.
Blue sky wears a corsage of a setting sun on her chest;
rosy clouds are the gowns of the sunset glow.

Carrying a hoe on my shoulder,
I hear a shepherd boy's song floating in the air.
Oh! They are singing now
with a bamboo flute playing faintly.

Smiles written on the faces,
they are humming a country tune,
leaving trains of thought flying in the evening wind.
How much loneliness and despair there are!
They are all gone with the evening wind
and forgotten on the country lane.

Updated 08-08-2010 at 03:32 AM by angliholic

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Comments

  1. Virgil's Avatar
    Angliholic, I'm reading your poetry for the first time and there is much to admire. I love your gorgeous imagery, especially of "Blue sky wears a corsage of a setting sun on her chest;/rosy clouds are the gowns of the sunset glow."

    And this middle stanza is so perfect:
    Carrying a hoe on my shoulder,
    I hear a shepherd boy's song floating in the air.
    Oh! They are singing now
    with a bamboo flute playing faintly.
    I will have to read more of it.
  2. angliholic's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Virgil
    Angliholic, I'm reading your poetry for the first time and there is much to admire. I love your gorgeous imagery, especially of "Blue sky wears a corsage of a setting sun on her chest;/rosy clouds are the gowns of the sunset glow."

    And this middle stanza is so perfect:

    I will have to read more of it.
    Thanks, Virgil, for the nice feedback.

    But actually the honor is not mine. This song is not mine; I'm just the translator.
    It's a popular folk song here a while ago, and there are many beautiful vivid images and metaphors.
    I decided to translate it into English because I might learn how to use images and metaphors well!

    Regards,
  3. Virgil's Avatar
    You live in a land of beautiful language. This is lovely. Yes, this is really good to learn from. "My company is a homeward-bound buffalo," now there is a fine metaphor to learn.
  4. angliholic's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Virgil
    You live in a land of beautiful language. This is lovely. Yes, this is really good to learn from. "My company is a homeward-bound buffalo," now there is a fine metaphor to learn.
    You could say that again.

    But the problem is that there are just too much beautiful language surrouding us that we seldom notice it exists. It's just like the air we breathe, but we never pay attention to its existence.
    When I translated them, I found them really gorgeous in English!
    Updated 08-08-2010 at 07:49 PM by angliholic
  5. Virgil's Avatar
    Yes, we take our own languages for granted. I wonder if there is an English translated book on poems from Formosa? Is the language on Formosa much different than Manderin or the other mainland Chinese languages? I'm ashamed to say I know so little about your side of the world.
  6. angliholic's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Virgil
    Yes, we take our own languages for granted. I wonder if there is an English translated book on poems from Formosa? Is the language on Formosa much different than Manderin or the other mainland Chinese languages? I'm ashamed to say I know so little about your side of the world.
    Not that I know of! But if you google the keyword on the internet, you may find some, I guess.
    Here Manderin is also our official language, which is a bit different from that in mainland China. The difference between the two is similar to that between EE and AE. Besides, we have some dialects of Manderin, such as Taiwanese and Hakanese.
  7. Virgil's Avatar
    Thank you.
  8. angliholic's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Virgil
    Thank you.
    By any chance, are you also a country boy?
    Only a country boy can really appreciate this song, I guess!
  9. Virgil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by angliholic
    By any chance, are you also a country boy?
    Only a country boy can really appreciate this song, I guess!
    No, absolutely not! I grew up and live in New York City. But I am into gardening and my family came from the country. I do enjoy going into the country though.