艾蕪 法令規章久失靈 官僚主義已成精 Rules and regulations

［法令規章久失靈］ 艾蕪 (1940-1992)

法令規章久失靈，
官僚主義已成精。
天公倘有分身術，
化成千千鄧小平，
一個機關分一名。

"Rules and regulations are long out of fashion"

-- by Ai Mu

-- Translated by Frank C Yue

Rules and regulations
Are long out of fashion --
Iron-clad Bureaucracy
Has become a Genie mighty!
If Grandpa Heaven 
Had the power of body-splitting,
O Give us seven-times-seven
Millions of Deng Xiaping!
Each government unit inside
One should be assigned.

聽說縣上一大拿 抱著閨女叫老媽 An official in the county, they say

《聽說縣上一大拿  無名

聽說縣上一大拿，

抱著閨女叫老媽。

買個大房媽住下，

天天祝壽不回家。

A Funny (or Not-So-Funny!) Poem

-- by Anon 

-- Translated by Frank C Yue 

An official in the county, they say,

Hugging a virgin in arms tight --

Calling her "Mama Mia!" --

Has bought a big house for his Mama dear.

He's wishing her Happy Birthday each day,

So he's not at home ev'ry night. 

H: I went to Peggy`s Cove, There was an ocean And I almost dove

(Postcard photo by Dale Wilson)

Peggy`s Cove No. 2 (of 2)
-- by H (then a 9-year-old Grade 3 student)
     written on-site** on June 20, 2014.

    I went to Peggy`s Cove,
    There was an ocean and I almost dove.
    Rocks, grass, and flowers,
    It was raining at that hour.
    There were lobsters, too,
    Daddy, Mommy, and I were wet, so were you!    

** (with some assistance by a walking rhyming-dictionary.) 
Peggy`s Cove is a favourite tourist spot: 
a rugged fishing village on the Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia.

this little poem "survives" because, as a special favour for grandpa, the poet wrote it on a postcard (see above photo) and mailed it from Peggy's Cove back to his residence (while the grandparents were accompanying the family on a 7-day cruise from Quebec City to Boston). 

but O, H's Peggy's Cove Poem No. 1 is somehow "lost"! from memory (and i am not too sure), it's something like:

        

          When I went to Peggy's Cove

        It was rainy and cold.

        The red and white lighthouse was tall,

        And I was so small ...

        Today, it was all mist and rain,

        One sunny day, I'll be back again!  

Not to be outdone, H's 11-year-old brother also wrote some short poems about how the fishermen caught lobsters with their traps (after a show-and-tell talk by our local guide Bruce) etc. and the exciting 2014 FIFA matches, cheering on his favourite team. (but i just can't find the little poems; they are "hiding" somewhere and the parents' priorities are of course different from the grandpa's.) later on, when the kids were asked to write down their poems again for grandpa, they said they had totally forgotten about them! to them, they were just some fun thing to do at the time, no big deal! (sigh! i was hoping to keep an anthology of their childhood poems... is this such an impossible project?)

陸游 山重水復疑無路 柳暗花明又一村

Touring Shan Xi Village

-- by Lu You (1125-1210)
-- excerpt translation by Frank C Yue


    山重水復疑無路，
    柳暗花明又一村。

Up comes stream upon stream, hill upon hill,
When it appears there is no way ahead,
Beyond shady willows and bright flow'rs still --
Lies another quiet village instead.

the following copied from lo-enote at hkej.com:

【遊山西村】南宋 陸游 (1125-1210) 字務觀 號放翁
[作於宋孝宗乾道三年(1167年)，當時正罷官閒居在家。]

莫笑農家臘酒渾，豐年留客足雞豚。1
山重水復疑無路，柳暗花明又一村。2
簫鼓追隨春社近，衣冠簡樸古風存。3
從今若許閒乘月，拄仗無時夜叩門。4

1 臘酒：臘月釀的酒。
   渾：渾濁。
   足雞豚：意思是備以豐盛菜肴。
2 山重水複：一重重山、一道道水。(有版本為..水復)。
    (現代人喜作山窮水盡…是另一解釋，完全不是本詩意思。)
   又一村：一村莊出現眼前。
3 春社：古代把立春後祭祀土地神的日子叫春社日，為每年二    月中旬。
4 閒乘月：有閒趁月光來的意思。
   拄仗：(有版本為柱仗)
   無時：隨時的意思。

萬古刀 六月二十六 圖書室遠足 午飯時間到 壽司慰食欲

【小學生暑假日誌】  萬古刀 中譯

        六月二十六

        圖書室遠足

        午飯時間到

        壽司慰食欲

        象棋消永晝

        雖勝非名局

        爰為觀影事

        大愛海洋屬

What We Did (so far this Summer)

-- by H  (Grade 4 student) 26th June 2015

On the twenty-sixth of June

We went to the library at Warden and Steeles.

Then, we ate our meals.

We ate sushi at twelve noon.

After, with my brother, we played chess,

I won but it was a big mess!

Then, I watched a movie,

All about the Sea!

［魚兄，與人類未來主人翁一起玩耍，人生至樂也，艷羡中。

頃胡作打醬油一首，聊博一哂。唯恐迷失於「翻譯」之中耳。

（比如二重翻譯後"中-->英-->中"的「飲水思源」會變成「中

國人在水龍頭前靜默三分鐘之類）勿怪。

盛暑之中，疏簾清簟一局棋，的是消暑妙品。順帶一提，若令

孫女、孫兒有用電腦，可下載免費的Arena Chess下棋界面軟

件，內含多種對弈引擎軟件， 非常實用有益，祝棋力猛進。

                                                                                                               -- 萬古刀］

Arena下載地址如次  http://www.playwitharena.com/?Download

thank you v much, `antique broadsword`! 

for me, children and grandchildren are grace from God. 
i am truly blessed and grateful.

my granddaughter is thrilled to know an uncle, a total stranger to her, has taken the trouble of translating 

her little poem into chinese! wow! thanks again! 

(i`ve taken the liberty of adding the title, as above.) 

thanks also for the link to free chess on line. my 
grandson already has his usual link where he plays 
with a live person (with an official rating) so he can 
gauge his own progress.   

H: Animals are nice, but some are mean

"ANIMALS": Acrostic 離合體詩 No. 2 (of 2)
-- by H (then a Third Grader; written in class in 2014)

A -- Animals are nice, but some are mean,
N -- Newts are small, like a bean.
I  --  Igloos are home to polar bears,
M -- Meet them if someone dares.
A  -- Apples are home to little worms,
L  -- Lions sometimes have germs.
S  -- Seals are gray, you see goslings in May.

(well, the last line is written quite imaginatively, virtually two rhyming lines squeezed into one.
on line 3: really?of course i didn`t query the little poet. it`s perhaps her poetic way of saying the p bears had the former occupants for dinner before moving in.)
Acrostic n word puzzle, word arrangement, in which the first or the first and last, letters of the lines make a word or words.  
離合字謎, 離合體詩. 

H: Clouds are white, as you can see Lovely, like you and me

"CLOUDS": Acrostic 離合體詩 No. 1 (of 2)
-- by H (then a Third Grader; written in class in 2014)

C -- Clouds are white, as you can see,
L -- Lovely, like you and me,
O -- Over the hills, over the seas,
U -- Um ... also over the trees.
D -- Do you know how I know all that?
S  -- Surely you can guess.

Actually the teacher said the students did not have to rhyme their poem. But H did (and that`s why she is an A-student, in fact straight-A student. fair enough).  

The first two lines are quite touching -- pure child-like innocence!

On line 4, her handling of the letter `U` is also commendable.
The whole piece is coherent. the ending is good, leaving the ball in the reader`s court. 

i just came across her school work last year by chance. so glad, i did not miss that... 

Acrostic n word puzzle, word arrangement, in which the first or the first and last, letters of the lines make a word or words.  
離合字謎, 離合體詩.