KEY Tang Dynasty Poetry
8 lines AAXAXAXA
A Among/ flowers/ - Pooka Small
A Stands in/ Atlant/ia’s hall
X Before/ Afshin/ and Yasmin
A Rulers/ standing/ proudly tall
X Award/ of Arms/ presenting
A Heeding/ people’s/cheerful call
X As Our/ custom/ so dictates
A Follow/ing Our/ Protocol
Done at Crown Tourney, on May Fifth - Anno Societatis LVIII
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, BLOG it?" ~Albert Einstein
I was approached by Hua Meilan to write an AoA for a recipient in the Kingdom of Atlantia. Their persona was from the Tang Dynasty of China but the Inspiration image was from the Ming Dynasty. Tang dynasty poetry that was revered in the Ming dynasty and as such, I feel comfortable using Tang Poetry in a Ming era scroll.
Lots of google searching ensued.
There were tantalizing hints of different kinds of the many poetic forms available. I spent some time on references to Lushi poetry Lüshi, Wade-Giles romanization lü-shih, a form of Chinese poetry that flourished in the Tang dynasty. It consists of eight lines of five or seven syllables, each line set down in accordance with strict tonal patterns. Lüshi provided a new, formal alternative to the long-popular free gushi (“ancient-style poetry”).
I was getting pretty frustrated at the overwhelming amounts of information I kept finding, but nothing that seemed to be helping me set on a poetic form. I reached out to friends that I know have expertise in Asian studies then I was pointed to the SCA Discord for Asian Poetry.
There I got enough keywords and phrases to find: A Short Selection of Tang Poems. This became the source I based the scroll on. Not only did it give me examples of the rhyme and how many lines poems contained, but it also discussed the nature of Tone pattern and how incompatible it is with English. I had to abandon the concept entirely for this composition. I chose to concentrate on the other aspects of rhyme and subject matter and to treat the tones as syllables.
8 lines AAXAXAXA
7 S S / L L / S S L (R)
7 L L / S S / S L L (R)
7 L L / S S / L L S
7 S S / L L / S S L (R)
7 S S / L L / L S S
7 L L / S S / S L L (R)
7L L / S S / L L S
7 S S / L L / S S L (R)
Through that source I also learned of the poet Lǐ Bái 李白 or Li Bo. And When Tang Dynasty poetry ruled the world and Li Bai English Translations. He’s considered one of the best writers of Tang Dynasty poetry. I had several English translations to reference when writing the scroll.
I relied heavily on two translations of Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon For inspiration in this scroll.
Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon
In the flowers with a jug of wine,
Drinking alone, no companions near,
I raise the cup and ask the moon to join,
Turn round to my shadow – and we are three.
Now, moon doesn't know how to drink,
And shadow only follows my form,
But, for the moment, moon and shadow friends,
Life's joy an instant springlike blooms.
I sing. Moon starts to sway,
I dance. Shadow reels and rolls.
Wine wakened, we join in delight –
Drunk, we scatter on our ways.
Let's be ever bound in journeys passion free,
And pledge to meet beyond the Milky Way
Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon
Among the flowers, a bottle of booze.
I drink alone, no friend is near.
Raising a cup, I invite the moon,
and, combined with my shadow, I become three.
Unfortunately, the moon does not drink,
But my shadow follows me.
For now, I have the moon and my shadow as companions,
and we need to party before spring comes to an end.
I sing and the moon paces back and forth,
I dance and see my shadow move like a hot mess.
While sober, we had fun together.
After getting drunk, each of us splits up.
Forever united, we roam without feeling,
only to see each other when we make it to the Milky Way.
Among flowers - Pooka Small
I took the “among flowers” as a direct quote from the Lǐ Bái poem. Then I added the recipient’s name. “Small” as it turned out was a good choice of words as it had many that rhymed with it. That provided great fodder for the rest of the scroll.
Stands in Atlantia’s hall
This was honestly one of the harder moments for me. Not writing a scroll for the East and the cadence and rhyme that I am used to is a real challenge. This sentence did not adhere to the syllable breakup that I was attempting with each sentence of 2/2/3. But “Atlantia” had to be in this spot and this sentence was one of the ones that had to rhyme with “small.”
Before Afshin and Yasmin
Thank goodness for these unrhymed sentences. Finding a word that has five rhymes is fairly difficult. Having these three breaks in the rhyme allowed me definite leeway in the composition. I was also grateful that TRM’s names helpfully adhered to the syllable counts that I needed.
Rulers standing proudly tall
Due to the dictates of the poem I was not able to put in any sort of praising descriptor or Their majesties preferred titles. This is a hazard of many poetic forms, not just this new one.
Award of Arms presenting
The naming of the award. This was the second non rhymed word.
Heeding people’s cheerful call
The scroll often dictates how it wants to be written. Here, instead of a descriptor of the recipient, I reference the people of the kingdom instead.
As Our custom so dictates
This was originally going to be another nature reference and be,“Our custom under warm sun.” This second reference to nature had to be given up to better fit the syllables and the line became “As Our custom so dictates.”
Following Our Protocol
The last word to rhyme with, “small” in the composition. What particularly pleased me about this was that it still rhymed well, but was not the one syllable word all the others are. It also still adhered to the 2/2/3 syllable breakdowns I attempted to adhere to.
Done at Crown Tourney, on May Sixth - Anno Societatis LVIII
This last sentence does not adhere to the poetic form at all. It is, indeed, tacked on at the end to include the last bits of pertinent information.
This is my interpretation of Tang dynasty poetry as interpreted into English. I hope I did it justice and I think I achieved it.
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