寒山寺

I passed by 蘇州 last month & had a chance to see 寒山寺. This temple is not that famous comparing to 金山寺 or 普陀寺. However, it became well known after 張繼 composed the poem "楓橋夜泊":

月落烏啼霜滿天，江楓漁火對愁眠。
姑蘇城外寒山寺，夜半鐘聲到客船。

The gate of the temple is very humble. There are only three green characters 寒山寺(white base) on a brown wall. It looks very spartan & gives you a cool feeling. Inside the temple, it is spacious & nice, 給你一种佛道温暖的感覺. Several buildings spread around the temple: 大雄宝殿, 寒拾殿, 罗漢堂, 天王殿, 楓江楼 etc. The most notable one is 普明宝塔, it is high & can be seen from far away. 鐘楼 itself is a little two level pagoda with a bell in the second level. There were a lot of visitors inside the temple. I noticed a group of Japanese high school kids with uniform. They said they learned "楓橋夜泊" in the class. Apparently 寒山寺 is well known in Japan. As far as I can remember, we didn't have this poem in our high school textbook, though it is included in 唐詩三百首. Later I learned that some Japanese have a tradition to come here on New Years' eve to 敲鐘. By doing that they believe it can shave 10 years from their age, .ie. make them younger. It is kind of odd that Chinese never really get serious about 寒山寺. Perhaps, 遠來的和尚會念經. In Tang dynasty, Two monks 寒山& 拾得 were in charge of this temple. To Japanese, 寒山& 拾得 were the monks from afar, they have got to be superior. The bell 張繼 heard is not in the temple now. It is said that the bell was carried to Japan when 拾得 visited there. Japanese couldn't locate the original bell since then. 伊藤博文 recasted a new one & sent to 寒山寺 in 明治38 年四月(around AD 1906).

Mark Yang mentioned 李香蘭 & 中國之夜 some time ago. There is one song related to it is 苏州夜曲. I checked the lyrics, the last sentence is something like "鐘が鳴ります寒山寺（かんざんじ） <寒山寺的钟声在繞樑回蕩>". However, in the Chinese version of 苏州夜曲, it becomes "水鄉苏州,花落春去,相思長堤,細柳依依." It sounds nice, but it just repeats the first section, omits the third section of the lyrics & rids of 寒山寺completely.

The temple is well kept & its surroundings are beautiful & romantic. 張繼 may not be that famous as we think, but "楓橋夜泊" sure puts 寒山寺on the romantic map of the world. Nowadays, everytime I read "楓橋夜泊", it reminds me of 寒山寺, 楓橋, water way, sunset & especially its haunting bell.

百思買

I was in Shanghai last month. As I strolled around 徐家滙 shopping area, I saw a big familiar store. It is “Best Buy” with three Chinese characters imprinted on the wall outside the building. It is 百思買. These 3 characters pronounce like Best Buy. However, in Mandarin, it means "Think 100 times before you buy". Personally, I think the translation is cute but it is a bad idea to use a store name like this. If a guy has to think twice, the probability of buying it is around 50%. If I have to think 100 times, I am sure I won't buy it as the probability of buying it is almost 0. When two cultures meet, all kinds of idiosyncrasies occur. This leads to that good old translation problem most Chinese encounter. 牛頓 or 牛敦? 詹森 or 強生? 聖地亞哥 or 聖地戈? 春田城 or 泉地市? 新奧而良 or 紐堮連斯? There is no standard way of name translation, it is a complete chaos. Japanese use kata kana for foreign names & they get by nicely. As to language improvement, Japanese is ahead of China about 1,600 years. Chinese always think Japanese learned the language from them & so it must be inferior. It is hard to swallow the pride to admit that now they have to follow the similar path to simplify characters & some others. I think it is hard to overcome 1,600 years of language evolution. Chinese need a quantum jump. One way to do this is just to get rid of the translation. Instead, make English as the mandatory second language everyone needs to learn from the primary school. So for all the foreign names or whatever foreign, we have the option to use English directly. This shifts the translation to the English instead of Chinese. Nowadays, all Chinese middle schools teach English, so just extends this to all primary schools & within 20 years, all the problems about foreign name disappear.

As a matter of fact, the way we communicate now (this writing) is writing English & insert Chinese word as we need it. The reverse of this is to write Chinese & insert English word as we need it. As long as every Chinese understand English as a second language, this method solves the problem. We will also find eventually that the language advantage of India & Singapore over Chinese will diminish. In a larger sense, this is very beneficial when it comes to 与世界接軌.

All Kinds of Everything Remind me of …

In our life, we go through a lot of routines. But we don’t remember them much & actually fade away when time goes by. Something comes once in a while that is out of ordinary, however, will stick to our memory. Love songs are common & everywhere. There are numerous classical love songs or arias. But most people are more interested in popular music. Personally, I like classical love songs more, perhaps because of the versatility of the orchestra & instruments. However, once in a while, I encountered some love songs from the pop side that is so out of the routines & influenced me much.

It was the time of 1956 when we were in our junior high. It was the time of growing up, we looked at everything fresh & new. Suddenly, one song popped up & we heard “Seven Lonely Days” everyday & almost everywhere. Of course, we didn’t know much about the lyrics & meaning of the song. But it was there everyday that we couldn’t ignore. Here came the English teacher, fresh out of the college, looked clean, nice & lively. She treated us like a group of uncivilized kids. She was about 8 years older than us. But she looked so cute & young that we treated her just like our sisters. One day, I asked her about “Seven Lonely Days” & what the lyrics really mean. She spent about 15 minutes explaining the whole thing, very impressive. Strange enough, I became very interested in English after this. Since then, every time I hear this song, it reminds me of my English teacher. The singer is Georgia Gibbs, a Russian Jewish descent. She had a nice, strong & lyric style voice. You can hear her voice far away. She passed away two years ago at the age of 87. Strictly speaking, “Seven Lonely Days “ is not a love song, but it is love related. You can listen to the song with the following youTube site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcNU2Dr5c5M

The lyrics:
Seven lonely days make one lonely week
Seven lonely nights make one lonely me
Ever since the time you told me we were through
Seven lonely days I cried and cried for you
(Oh, my darlin' you're cryin', boo-hoo-hoo-hoo)
(There's no use in denyin' I cried for you)
(It was your favorite pastime making me blue
(Last week was the last time I cried for you)
(Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo)
Seven hankies blue I filled with my tears
Seven letters too I filled with my fears
Guess it never pays to make your lover blue
Seven lonely days I cried and cried for you
(And cried for you)
(Oh, my darling you're crying) Seven lonely days
(Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo) Make one lonely week
(There's no use in denying) Seven lonely nights
(I cried for you) Make one lonely me
(It was your favorite pastime) Ever since the time
(Making me blue) You told me we were through
(Last week was the last time) Seven lonely days
(I cried for you) I cried and cried for you
(Oh, my darling I) Cried and cried for you
(Oh, my darling I) Cried and cried for you

Time went by, we entered senior high & the pop music was dominated by Elvis, the King. Time went by again, we entered college & the pop music was dominated by Beetles. Since they are all male singers, we boy though like the music but not the type that you will jump, scream & faint in their concert. That sort of thing belongs to girls. Not until 1965, while we just finished military service & ready to study abroad, one song hit me with a bang. The first time I heard the song, I felt this woman was sincere & serious. The title of the song is “The Wedding”. After hearing the song, I decided to look for someone that I can marry someday later. If someone put the emotion on line & sings the song from the bottom of the heart, she can’t be ignored. Nowadays, every time I think about the college graduation & military service, it reminds me of this song. Recently I found the original performance of Julie Rogers on youTube. It really enhances my original feeling about this song: sincere, earnest & emotional. Julie Rogers is an English pop star, born in 1943 & still around these days. The following is the youTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvo8vlSi8zE

Time went by again, it was the time of 1970. In the distance, I heard something “All Kinds of Everything”, a distinctive voice of a loving girl. This was the time we just finishes our Ph.D. dissertation & ready for the world. Now this song sounded so pure, sincere & real that I forgot the Ph.D. & decided to get married right away. How can you refuse a love call like this. Dana Rosemary Scallon is an Irish singer who won the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest with this title song “All Kinds of Everything”. You can see her original performance in the following youTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awhQjT14cdA

After I watched this video clip, it sure enhances my original feeling. My heart is almost melted when she utters the last word of the song. Nowadays, every time I think about Ph.D. degree, it reminds me of this “All Kinds of Everything”.

The lyrics:
Snowdrops and daffodils
butterflies and bees
sailboats and fishermen
things of the sea
wishing-wells
wedding bells
early morning dew
all kinds of everything remind me of you

Seagulls and aeroplanes
things of the sky
winds that go howlin'
breezes that sigh
city sights
neon lights
grey skies or blue
all kinds of everything remind me of you

Summertime
wintertime
spring and autumn too
Monday
Tuesday every day
I think of you.
Dances
romances
things of the night
sunshine and holidays
postcards to write
Budding trees
autumn leaves
a snowflake or two
all kinds of everything remind me of you.

Summertime
wintertime
spring and autumn too
seasons will never change
the way that I love you.

Dances
romances
things of the night
sunshine and holidays
postcards to write
Budding trees
autumn leaves
a snowflake or two
all kinds of everything remind me of you.
All kinds of everything remind me of you.

November's Greetings

Hi, All,

After almost 2 months (June and July) of checking without any new posting, I thought our blog had been abandoned. So, I was surprised to see the good stuffs posted by Mark Lin and Mark Yang.

Mark Lin's posting about "the last rose of summer" really struck the core in me. I happen to consider this song the most beautiful folk song of them all. I have collected quite a few recordings. The best (again in my opinion) was sung by Leontyne Price in Flotow's version. Two years ago, in a Dublin pub, with Guinness of course, I asked our tour guide to sing it, but he declined. Then, when we were at a B&B in a small Irish town, the 75 years old keeper did granted my request and sang it wonderfully. She used to a choir singer in younger days. A few years back, my family was celebrating my birthday at a restaurant where there were a keyboard player and a fiddler performing. Right after we finished our entrees, the fiddler came to our table and played this song for me. Needless to say, I was quite moved. It turned out my daughter had asked them to. I have listened to so many recordings and performances from profesionals down to school kids, and I have not heard a single bad one. I guess the song is so good that no matter how you sing or play it, it just comes out nice. As far as I know, Flotow was the only composer adapting the whole folk song into his work, unlike Puccini and others. Some critics had said that "The last rose of summer" made the opera Martha, not the opera made the song. I think there are more people who know this song than people who know Flotow and Martha. By the way, I don't think Puccini did a good job with oriental materials; both Turandot and Madam Butterfly are not that great except the two famous arias that are more Italian. Actually, I feel Puccini demeaned Chinese and Japanese in those operas.

Other follow up coming.