Poem for the Ink Lotus // 墨荷的诗

C1 - Childhood Memories | 兒时

- Childhood Memories | 兒时 -

「Extraordinary!」

A woman's voice drew eight year old Dan Xi's attention to the stall on the busy market streets. A woman in simple elegant pink clothes had her hands on one of the papers on the table. The little girl by the woman's side raised her eyebrows at the yellowish-white paper, pouting her lips as she tug on her mother's dress.

He looked at the direction the young girl was trying to pull her mother to. Oh, it was a toy stall selling kites and dolls.

「Good morning, ma'am」Dan Xi greeted the woman with a gentle smile.「How may I assist you?」 

The woman looked at him, and her eyebrows shot to the sky. Her smile that followed later was bright.「Oh! You must be the genius son of the Xia Family!」

Dan Xi felt his stomach flutter from the praise as the word "genius" stuck to his mind. He gave a smile and nodded.

「Xia family?」the young girl asked, cocking her head.

「Yes! The Xia family are well-known calligraphers. His father is a very knowledgeable man who works as an official for the emperor. And his mother also happens to be a very educated woman.」the woman replied.

The young girl looked impressed by her mother's words. She turned her little head towards Dan Xi and pointed.「You must be really smart then if both your parents are smart people.」

Dan Xi laughed, but held back some of that proudness about to spill out of his throat. He gets tons of praises like these every day, but it still gets to him and makes him all warm inside. In his mind, he scolded himself for being prideful.

The woman turned her head to look inside the shop, but was only met with shelves full of scrolls and paper.「Are your parents not here?」

「Unfortunately, no.」Dan Xi replied.「Father went out to buy something from the other town this morning, while my mother went home just now. I'm not too sure when they'll return. Did you request for my parents to copy something?」

「Oh, yes. I left a book to be copied by your mother's hand four days ago and was just wondering if it was done.」

The woman then gave Dan Xi the name of the book she wanted to be copied. His eyes scanned over the words once, and in less than 5 minutes he was back with the original book and the copy in his hands.

「Here you go, ma'am. You already paid for this the day you gave my mother the book, yes?」

「Yes, I did. Oh by the way, I must say I am very impressed you only had to look at that paper for 2 seconds before memorised it. You truly are from the Xia family.」

「Haha, ma'am, you flatter me.」Dan Xi spoke, rubbing his head and swaying his body from side to side, while his cheeks were flushed pink.「My family and I are a regular family like you and your daughter, only that I had the luxury of reading at a very young age. I'm sure the little ones around here will become even brighter now that books are affordable.」

The woman laughed with her hand below her chin.「How very humble of you. Indeed, you will turn out to be a very fine young man in the future. Thank you Dan Xi.」

Dan Xi smiled gently.「You're welcome. Hope to see you again.」

With the lady and her daughter gone, he was now left alone once again. There was truth in his words. Books have become a lot more affordable for the poor now that their parents started to copy books and scripts to sell. Having seen many books that the customers put down to be copied, Dan Xi was able to learn and observe the words written by different people.

He admired the brushstrokes of certain calligraphers. The amount of hard work to obtain the best stroke in certain words, the grace in the flick of the brushes, the pressure needed to make sure the amount of ink was perfect on the surface. . . all these little details fascinated him.

For many years, he studied calligraphy with his parents and the outcome was not exactly as he expected. He had anticipated to be accepted as a student in a famous calligraphy school, but what he got instead were praises and jealousy from the townspeople. His town wasn't famous for anything other than his father being an official, so it didn't surprise him that his calligraphy isn't known to the more advanced cities.

Still, he had hope that someday he could have a great teacher to teach him calligraphy. So while he patiently waits for his time to shine, he had developed another hobby which earned him more praises than his brushwork—poetry.

When he had plenty of time to spare, he would grab a piece of paper, along with an ink block and his favourite brush, then head off to wonder around until he got inspiration.

The first time Dan Xi's poem was found was when he was thirteen, and by then he had been secretly writing for two years. His mother had been cleaning his bedroom when she found a box underneath his bed, tucked away to the dark corner. And it was there where she found the many poems he had written (with dates and locations under each poem might he add). Her mother grabbed his first poem, and obviously she showed that to Dan Xi's father after he came back from work.

Dan Xi, being embarrassed and slightly flustered about it decided to walk away with the excuse that he felt sleepy. But of course his parents would not let him go away with a lie. And on that dining table that day, he received strings of praises and compliments from his parents.

「It brings out the honest feelings of the poet, don't you think?」His father, Xia Zhi had said to his wife, Rong Yau, smiling proudly at his son's work.「兒時 (Er Shi). . . a fitting name indeed.」

That poem was the first poem he ever wrote, and the first poem that lifted his own fame.

《兒時》

河邊水聲源不斷，

鳥在枝間唱起歌，

院裡小孩笑聲響，

回憶兒時在心中。

Translation (sorry it's not beautified):

The water by the river sounded endlessly,
Among the branches the birds sing,
In the courtyard the children laughs loudly,
Reminiscing childhood memories in the heart.