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Song title: Drunken Flowers
Song selected by: Winnie
Original poem:(Chinese-English reference)
薄霧濃雲愁永晝，The sky is covered with heavy clouds and fog just like my mind. I worry the daytime is too long.
瑞腦消金獸。Theborneol(*1) is burned out in the animal-shaped incense burner.
佳節又重陽，It’s the Double Ninth Festival(*2) again.
玉枕紗櫥，半夜涼初透。The jaded pillow and thin curtains on my bed cannot resist the cold in the middle of night.
東籬把酒黃昏後，After sunset should be a time for reunion, but I am drinking alone in the field of chrysanthemums.
有暗香盈袖。With the slight fragrance (of flowers) lingering in my sleeves.
莫道不消魂，How should I not be sad?
廉卷西風，Autumn wind rolls up my bedroom curtain.
人比黃花瘦。Because of missing you, I am now thinner than the fragile chrysanthemums.
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About the poet: Lee Qing-Zhou
 Lee Qing-Zhou was the most prominent female poet during the Tang, Song, and Yuan Dynasties. (art name Yi-An Upasaka, born in 1081) She was highly recognized among poets. To become a poet of her stature, she studied hard, and she also had a supportive husband. Once during Double Ninth Festival, Lee wrote ‘Drunken Flowers’ and mailed it to her husband Zhou Ming-Cheng. Upon receiving the poem, Zhou added fifteen more verses in between Lee’s verses. He then took the new poem and showed it to his friends. After reading the new poem for quite some time, they all pointed to the verses written by Lee and said those were the best ones, especially ‘How should I not be sad?’ ‘Autumn wind rolls up my bedroom curtain.’ and ‘Because of missing you, I am now thinner than the fragile chrysanthemums.’ were epic verses. From then on, Zhou had nothing but admiration for his wife.
| Cited from Wikipedia / Picture : Wikipedia |
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About the poem:
The first two verses made us feel cloudy and stifling, the incense was burnt out. The following three verses made us feel the cooling weather during Double Ninth Festival. The next two verses described drinking in the garden and smelling the scent of chrysanthemums, and this made us feel lonely and realize how sad the author must have felt. In the last three verses, the author started to feel sorry, and we started have pity for her.
‘Drunken Flowers’ afterthoughts:
After I saw the video of ‘Drunken Flowers’ by HanGuang Vocal Band, I could actually sense the sorrow felt by the poet from the first two verses the moment they slowed down the speed. It even made me feel a bit stifling. With the next verse, they sang it a bit louder to show happiness, and then the next two verses showed some sadness in them. The next two verses showed the feeling of loneliness and sorrow. The final three verses sounded a bit pitiful, properly delivering the feeling inside the author. |
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Text: the Beautiful Voices Compiled by Winnie │ Pictures: the Beautiful Voices 
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