China Diary- Part 2: The Hall of Literary Profundity

When I was in Beijing for the first time recently, I sometimes felt I was living in the future. There was no apparent visible poverty, at least not in the touristy parts of Beijing. The Olympics area that we stayed in for a few days, with its colossal "Bird's Nest" and giant water cube stadium, seemed like from another world. It was like being in a "Planet of the Apes" movie, with its majestic skyscrapers, multi-lane highways, and high speed trains.

In this world of the future, English has very little role to play. Since my Chinese vocabulary consists of exactly two words, nihao and xie xie, my attempted conversations with Beijing natives was quite entertaining, mostly comedic. My rudimentary acting talent and rusty drawing skills came in handy.

You can only imagine my plight when I had to communicate my travelers' diarrhea situation to a pharmacist who did not understand a word of English. Thoughts in my mind, "what if the pharmacist misunderstands me and gives me a pill for constipation...or worse?" Anyhow, I was fortunate that our family's Chinese-American friend came to my rescue and graciously provided me with some timely help in locating my medicines and translating the dosage and other relevant information into English.

"May we remind you. Please be self-restraint and be a good tourist to mold a well-mannered imagination"

Our bilingual Chinese friends also helped translate archival materials written in traditional Chinese in some of the sites we visited. Traditional Chinese runs from right to left and top to bottom. It is very stylized with many complex strokes. It is more pictorial than alphabet-oriented. Another interesting aspect of traditional Chinese is that there is no punctuation mark. A more simplified form of Chinese is used for email and other such everyday writing, especially using the computer.

Although there are several ethnic minority groups in China with their own sub-cultures and languages, I was told that Beijing's dialect of Mandarin is the language mainly used in schools and other institutions throughout China. This is in stark contrast to a country such as India where ethnic minority sub-cultures co-exist happily with hundreds of languages with different scripts. The focus in China seemed to be on creating a unified Chinese (majority Han) culture.

Whether the original ideas were lost in English translation or that Chinese language is just naturally very flowery and profound, I do not know. But it gave me great delight to read some of the names of palaces and halls in the Forbidden City and other sites in Beijing. They had fancy, other-worldly names such as the Hall of Mental Cultivation, the Palace of Eternal Spring, the Pavilion of Expecting Good Omens, the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, the Pavilion of the Rain of Flowers and so on. Some street signs and banners were also very fascinating to read.

The poet in me was, of course, inspired by these delightful phrases. Here is a light-hearted song that I wrote about an imaginary young princess pining for her beloved prince in ancient China. The more spiritual among us can also look at it as the longing of the individual soul (jeevatma) to be united with the universal consciousness (paramatma). Either way, I hope you enjoy it!

The Great Wall of my Beloved's Heart

Will I ever cross the great wall of your heart?
Scaling the heights of your temple of heaven, my Beloved,
Opening your locked gates of well-nourished harmony
So I can bathe in your palace of eternal spring?

Will I ever enter the inner depths of your forbidden city?
Walking through the garden of your deepest feelings, my Beloved,
Learning the secrets of your hall of mental cultivation
So I can rest in your chamber of lasting happiness?

Will I ever break the silence of your belvedere of abstinence?
With my prayers at the altar of good harvests, my Beloved,
Filled with literary profundity and divine might
So I can unite with you in the palace of great brilliance?

Will I ever stir the peace of your hall of heavenly purity?
With my incense offerings at the palace of union, my Beloved,
Navigating the soft shadows of nocturnal brightness
So I can meet you at the hall of earthly tranquility?

Will I ever enchant you in the hall of benevolence and happiness?
With my celestial music from the chamber of pleasant sounds, my Beloved,
Resonating in unison through the palace of tranquil longevity
So I can open the treasures of your imperial vault of heaven?

Will I ever move you in your hall of spreading righteousness?
With my whispers at the pavilion of expecting good omens, my Beloved,
Showering love on the pavilion of the rain of the flowers
So I can send jade ripples through your garden of virtue and harmony?

I hope this poem brought a smile on your face :-) Peace and love to all of you!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like reading my earlier entry about historical cross-over figures in the India-China cultural exchange of knowledge over time. Or another of my poems on the garden of meditation or the one that goes "Boys don't dance, they say."