Best of the Transparent Hummingbird
i was very nearly late for class because the mother was hanging up a calligraphic scroll in the stairwell. it was not, you understand, that she made me stay and help her mount it (she had a foot stool and the father for that.) it was because she insisted on reading it aloud to me: “白发三千丈 缘愁似个长”me, confidently: “辛弃疾”
her: are you sure?
me: 辛弃疾 always talks about 白发!
so of course i had to google it to settle the matter, and as it happens it was actually 李白 who wrote: “白发三千丈 缘愁似个长” whereas what 辛弃疾 had said was: “白发空垂三千丈，一笑人间万事”. mother 1 : minz 0. on reflection, the meter should have given me a clue.
***
me, mortified: well, at least it was an intelligent mistake! …. aha! see, this 2011 paper in the journal of chinese verse studies says 辛弃疾 used this image in at least 70 of his poems, that is to say more than 1/10 of his extant poems! anyway you can’t put a sentiment like that on the wall!mother: it’s a sentiment for old people. i’m an old person.
me: good bye ma i’m late for school now!
(although when i came home, she’d changed her mind and what was on the wall was 也无风雨也无晴。 which, i hasten to say, was on my A level Chinese literature reading list and i know very well it is by 苏轼 from 定风波。 (the mood has not come upon the mother to pop-quiz me on this, but if she does i am More Than Ready.)
