Happy Valentine – With Orchids & How Do I Love Thee? – Part II

I've had just enough time...   to celebrate another Valentine Day cum Chap Goh Meh Day

When flowers kisses...

When I finished reciting that poem, one farmer’s wife clapped very enthusiastically and very loudly. Only one. The rest stared at me in stoney silence maybe wondering if I have gone out of my mind. I cannot remember how I connect the poem with the rest of the technical report but I must have done it somehow for I finished it off quite acceptably to receive decent applause at least, if not as enthusiastically as that farmer’s wife.

But I never tried that stunt again in the other towns and cities. Not in Victoria with my stories of crazy Gila birds that hanged like bats and where that pretty reporter asked me to squeeze in with her into her small car with her microphones saying “it sounds better this way”. Not in the imposing steel and glass towers of Sydney. Not in Wagga Wagga where I was in my elements with my stories of tip toeing naked kangaroos on cold autumn nights and the horror of being naked in a hen house of hundreds of excited chicks. That performance got me a TV interview and the invitation to go rice sowing on a light plane.

Mmmm… Come to think of it, maybe the timing was just not right. Maybe, I should have recited it only on Valentine Day.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; 

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. 

I love with a passion put to use 

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. 
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height 
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight 
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. 
I love thee to the level of every day's 
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. 
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; 
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. 
I love with a passion put to use 
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. 
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose 
With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath, 
Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose, 
I shall but love thee better after death.

A lovely pair...

Happy Valentine – With Orchids & How Do I Love Thee? – Part I

I've had just enough time...   to tell how much I love thee -

Valentine Day is just round the corner and if you asked me to choose a love poem, it has to be this one that I recited ten years ago to the farmers who gathered in the town hall of the small Australian town of Morawa. It was a freezing summer morning and I shivered nervously as I stumbled my way up the stage to stare at the weathered faces of rough, tough Australian farmers and their wives. They were firing up these huge electrical lanterns to generate some heat which I desperately needed. After the brief introduction, the silence was nerve racking as I cleared my dry throat to speak.

I regretted my quirky sense of humour and romance but it was too late to back off. In the radio interview the day before which was aired that morning, some of these farmers had already heard some of the good as well as not so flattering views I said about their wheat as they drove their combine harvester before the crack of dawn. They then drove down with their family to hear what else I have to say. I was on a tour of 5 Australian farming towns and this is the first stop. I don’t remember much of the content of speech but I remembered opening it with – “How Do I Love Thee?” followed by the rest of the poem. I must be mad.

Last Valentine, I shared the occasion with Desiderata, see link here– Happy Valentine - Saying it with Orchids & Desired Things. This Valentine, let me share “How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning with you accompanied by my orchids in light and shadows. Joined me for Part II for what happened after the conclusion of that speech in Morawa.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. 

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight 

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. 

I love thee to the level of every day's 

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. 

Check out Part II for the conclusion to the speech in Morawa and the rest of the "How Do I Love Thee?" poem on Valentine Day.

The Secret & Riddles of the Sphinx

I've had just enough time to...  learn the secret of the Sphinx

In Las Vegas, I could not decipher the secrets of the Sphinx...

In the land of sand and gold

I was stopped by a Sphinx of old who

Asked riddles to pass or be devoured

“What creature has one voice

And is four-footed, two and three?”

“Oh, Man!” I exclaimed,

What answer can I give to that?

The Sphinx looked up in surprise

The correct answer I had supplied

For man crawls on fours, walks on two

And in old age the cane makes three

The next question was about sisters,

“One gives birth to the other

And, she gives birth to the first.

Who are the sisters two?"

If I were to think “Night and Day”

I thought out loud, I could not say

The Sphinx stood up on all fours

Surveyed me curiously and said

“Only one last riddle remains,

Answer and you will not be slain”

because I cannot tell the real from the illusion.

“Would you love a creature hideous

To save or kill for your own sake?”

That is no riddle but a trick

Either answer will be a mistake

If I were to die, it might as well be for “love!”

And I gave that to the Sphinx straight

With a mighty roar, she sprang

My eyes closed waiting for her fangs

Over my head she flew and dashed hers

Against the rock it smashed

I lived to tell this tale

But I cannot give you an end for

I never discovered the Sphinx’s secret.

The Lady in the Flower Cheongsam Promise Me Love

I've had just enough time to...   deliberate on the complexities of Love & Life

The Lady waiting on the stairs by the street of Malacca

The lady in the flower cheongsam

Promise me love 

But I don’t have the currency 

She said she doesn’t mind 

But many do 

And do I 

Mind we are of different worlds 

Mine beneath hers

What about pride?

Love conquers all when you’re in love

But love is like soft petals on sunny days

All too soon it fades away while

Pride is sharper than steel and

Harder than the boulder

That stood in our way

Love on her mind

Coward! She cried

Your pride is too fragile

Hitting me where it hurts

How do I make you understand

A man’s pride is his being

Without which he is a bitch

I can give you my life

But I can’t sell you my pride

What about love?

What about love?

Without love a man can survive

A lesser man he may be but a man still

Without pride a man is a dog

Its tail licking its heel

Life in the way

I am a woman.

I need no pride which

Makes me more a man than you

I am willing to die for love but

I am not willing to die for pride

I am willing to give up everything

For that sublime feel

You are not willing to accept heaven

To your brittle pride you yield

She stood at the top of the stairs

I stayed below

She dared me to go up

But all I could think of

Is the same promise

Made by the farmer’s daughter

One love is as good as another

But a shattered pride

Stay shattered forever

If my lips are sealed

I've had just enough time to...   have my lips sealed

Taken of the sealed lips in an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur

If my lips are sealed

I won’t be able to compare

Thee to a summer’s day

Or express in how many ways

I love you

If my lips are sealed

I can only love in silence

Like the undisturbed snow…

Pure and unadorned

Unadulterated by words

I was waiting for a charity event to begin and I wandered as I’m prone to do. I stumbled into a gallery and I liked this exhibit. The first thought was political – about how much we cannot say in this country. But when I draw out this photo to write, I find I did not want to go down that path. I want to write about love. And what can happen if one can’t express it. It is not necessarily bad.

The Statistician’s Dilemma

I've had just enough time to...   throw away my calculations

Taken in a back street of Surabaya, Indonesia where...

The statistician attended a birthday party

The princess got a Barbie and a pony

Everybody was supposed to be happy

The parent looked on anxiously

The statistician took a trip overseas

Wandered through streets that tourists miss

Watched children played in the underbelly

Where no one is supposed to be happy

Crunch his figures, do his maths

Calculate probability

Found no correlativity

Happiness is not measured in toys

It may be measured against something called love

But love itself cannot be measured against anything…

After visiting the Chinese temple in Surabaya in the last two posts, I walked through the back streets adjacent to the temple. I liked walking through the back streets if I perceived it is safe for I can discover many things one will miss in the main streets. This is how the residents of the city actually lived and you get to have a glimpse of the families going about their daily affairs which I always find very interesting.

I came across a few kids sitting on the floor with the eldest in school uniform holding a work book and explaining something to two younger girls while the youngest looked at me with interest. When they realized I’m taking their photos, they reacted by covering their faces with their hands and book. They were incredibly cute and innocent. Unlike mine, their lives look uncomplicated and happy.

these innocents shielded their eyes from a foreign devil... :)

Did You Fall In Love With The Music or Musician?

I've had just enough time to...   wonder if I love the musician or her music?

Taken one spring night in Shanghai...

It was a pleasant spring night and I was having a stroll in the entertainment district of Shanghai where old and new buildings are well blended into an interesting and sometimes incongruous mix of modernity and history. This place then is aptly named新天地; "New Heaven and Earth". In the distance I saw brightly lighted kiosk selling this “mixture of everything” – Chinese helmets (why?) and Chinese Soldiers cap (this I can understand), ladies purse of modern design and traditional colours, and dolls. Porcelain dolls wearing traditional Chinese costume in elegant poses. And graceful modern dolls in gowns playing musical instruments. Maybe, it is this mix of contradictions that made me asked “Did I fall in love wih the music or musician

...of the musicians and their music and...

Did You Fall In Love With The Music or Musician?

Did I fall in love –

With the music or musician?

I couldn’t tell

Not when she is playing, not when

Her sound wraps round me

Like fur on a winter morning

Before the sun melts the icicles,

Lifts the heavy fog

Off the sleepy lake and

Prods lives under thick blankets

She wakes me up

And leads me to the sun

Did I fall in love –

With her or the sun?

Chinese ladies in their traditional costumes...

叶子 - Leaves

I've had just enough time to...   be thankful for leaves

Taken in the garden village of Sungei Buloh, Malaysia

I was in the town of Sungei Buloh (River of Bamboo) shopping for orchids before the Chinese New Year. In those old less enlightened days, this place was used to isolate a leper colony from the general populace. A vocation was needed for these displaced people and in an ironic way, growing flowers and plants was the profession chosen for them. Now it is a thriving town engaged predominantly in the gardening business. The city has expanded and engulfed the area making it a very valuable real estate. Now, those once shunted lepers and their descendants are not only businessmen and women but also millionaires putting a final irony to the Town of The River of Bamboo.

Everyone was looking down because there were flowers in glorious bloom everywhere. On both sides of the small lane, on every multiple racks, in every stall and corners, any space that can be squeezed in, flowers of all varieties and colors and forms smiled back at you. But my attention was up, at that wondrous spread of rain tree branches and the millions of tiny leaves blinking at me. Whenever the wind stirred, a few shook themselves from the branches and floated down in an erratic but graceful dance to join the other fallen leaves on the roof. 

I love flowers but it was the leaves that talked to me that day.  And leaves always reminded me of that sad song  叶子yèzi (Leaf ). I heard that haunting voice as I stood by the road shoulder looking up feeling deliciously sad while boisterous trading were happening all round me. And what made it even more poignant is that I will never hear her singing a new song again. '阿桑' (Ah Sang) had a hard life. She was discovered singing in a pub and “Leaf” made her famous. Just when it appeared that Life is finally giving her the break she deserved, she quietly left the entertainment scene. Not long later, the world was shocked to learn that she has succumbed to breast cancer. She was only 34.

叶子                                                                         Leaves

阿桑                                   Ah Sang

叶子 是不会飞翔的翅膀                   Leaves are wings that cannot fly

翅膀是落在天上的叶子                    Wings are leaves dropped in the sky

天堂 原来应该不是妄想                  Heaven is not wishful thinking after all

只是我早已经遗忘                           It's just I've forgotten long ago

当初怎么开始飞翔                           How it is then, I could fly

孤单 是一个人的狂欢                      Loneliness is the reverly of the lonely

狂欢是一群人的孤单                       Reverly is the loneliness of the crowd

爱情 原来的开始是陪伴                 Love has its beginning in togetherness

但我也渐渐地遗忘                           But I've gradually forgotten

当时是怎样有人陪伴                       How it is I had you for company

我一个人吃饭旅行                           Now I eat and travel alone

到处走走停停                                  Wandering aimlessly

也一个人看书写信                           I read and write alone

自己对话谈心                                  With myself, conversing

只是心又飘到了哪里                       But where is my heart floating to?

就连自己看也看不清                       I can't see clearly

我想我不仅仅是失去你                  Just feel it is not only you I lost