We are starting off our first Chinese Poetry collection from a work of Mr. Small Town (pen name), a participant at OnLok who has written poetry during the pandemic. As the first post we would like to share his poem giving thanks to OnLok.

Disclaimer: The views and posting represented here are of the author and members of the archival team only and not of the OnLok PACE organization.

Translation*:

With care (安）and thoughtfulness I celebrate in my old age,
unlimited joy（樂）how heartwarming.
The center’s (居) staff working hard together,
with great (好）atmosphere and great sincerity I can’t stop cheering for them!
-Translated by Archival member Billy Zeng

*Note with translations, we are going for direct rather than poetic translations. There are many elements in Chinese poetry that can’t be translated and out of respect for the poet we recommend our readers who knows Chinese to use the original Chinese writing as the standard to understand the poem.

Archival Comments and Explanation:

The title 安樂居好 can be translated that OnLok (安樂居) is wonderful (好). OnLok is the Cantonese pronunciation for 安樂 which means peaceful and happy. This poetry is known as a 七言詩，literally seven word poem. The seven word poems are a popular poetry form in literary Chinese. Each line has a fixed length of seven Chinese words, often the last word of each line will rhyme (but not always!). As in this case, 齡 (ling, age) 馨 (hing/xin, descriptor for warm environment) 停 (ting, stop) rhymes in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taishanese. Mr. Small Town made it so that the first word of each line makes up the title which give his thanks to OnLok.