Though time goes by ...

While writing about the poem ‘Greensleeves’ in my latest post, I got an idea to create this post.
‘Time is the best medicine for forgetting’. As time goes by, we forget most of the things by and by. Even our personal feeling and experience are used to be forgetten if we don’t have any special feeling about them. Most of the artistic things are used to follow this law. Usually they are gone with time. However, also there are so many artistic materials which are standing still through the time resisting to the strength of it in different ways. Some are still existing probably because of the good techniques of recording the things. But some are still existing in the world taking a long journey through the hearts of the people, so no physical material cannot be found as original or so.

‘Greensleeves’ is since 1500, so it’s been over 500 years.

Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in your company.

It seems like most people love that opening. It’s hard to believe that the poem was composed by a king. Too much tender are the words, so it’s probably the reason that the song was more popularized by the female singers. Let me recommend you these three links (below), especially the angry version of The Scorpions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N3IXc_Dn9A (The Scorpions)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twix9KfES9Y (The King’s Singers)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnm5isS2rHM (Blackmore’s Night)

Among the burmese people, one poem is really well-known. If someone starts to recite ‘To have one up’ and then stops, another person will surely know to continue ‘Else must be down’. The poem is still being recited by a lot of burmese people until today. It’s a poem about the nature of human beings in the world. It said if one person is cherished, then surely the other person will have to be perished. Probably you may want to complain. You want to mention about mutual relation or bi-lateral development. But it’s like the poem insists there’s no such thing or maybe the poet wanted to say sometimes there’s no alternative. Though most of the people cannot recite the whole poem, nearly everybody knows the two parts of this poem. The first part is the one I mentioned: ‘To have one up, else must be down’. And the other one is ‘Even the weatlth of a king is just a bubble blown up to the surface of an ocean’. The poet wants to tell that it’s not lasting so long. When you’re at a certain age, just try to look back your past, you’ll see everything was happened so simple and so fast. Those two portions of the poem are still well-known in Myanmar.
Very strange thing about the poem is that it’s written just before a minute the poet was put to death by the executioners just by the execution hill. The poet made the poem within a few minutes, but the poem was able to take a very long long trip through the years (probably over 500 years). Even today, the people can still feel the poem itself. The poem doesn’t need to be transformed to catch the hearts of the people.

One of the famous poems of Chinse is called ‘但願人長久’ . It’s written in 11th Century by the poet Su Shi. After 800 years had passed, the famous lady singer Teresa Teng (Deng Li Jun) changed the poem into a song and made it a very popular hit.
The poet was drunk and talking to the moon, in the poem. Like ‘Greensleeves’, this song was also more popularized by the female singers. Roughly it can be translated as :

O Moon, since when you've showed up?
I asked the dark night sky toasting my wine ...
I don't know what year is it tonight ...
In the palaces ... in heaven ...

I'd ride the wind and make my home there ...
Hiding in a jade room of the beautiful mansion of yours ...
And when I could not stand the cold ...
I'd rise and dance in your pure beams ...
This mundane world is not comaparable to yours ...

Circling the red chambers ...
Dipping low in the curtained door ...
You shine without a sleep ...
It seems like you bear us no ill will ...
Then how come you be so round at times when we humans are parted ...

People have their grieves and joys ... their togetherness and separation ...
The moon has its dark and clear times ... its waxings and wanings ...
That's the way it's been since long long ago ...
I only hope we two may have long long lives ...
Sharing the same moon even though we are a thousand miles apart ...

The original poem is everywhere on the internet. I want to give some nice youtube links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xcxCv06tXk ( Deng Li Jun / Teresa Teng )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HPUgFXIdg8 ( Wang Fei / Faye Wang )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=880P16L6CvI ( Jian Xue You / Jacky Cheung )

The Arirang () of Korea is also a heart touching poem of over 600 years ago. It’s become a symbolic song of Korea. The poem starts with these words:

The one who deserted me here will surely have the sore feet before he can walk up to a few miles ...

Doesn’t it sound like a curse? There are so many versions of Arirang and some lady sings it very beautifully and very difficult. In 2005, Cho Young Phil sang the song at a concert in North Korea, and it’s a heart-aching sight to view the show. So I give you the link. Another Arirang version of Cho Young Phil is quite different from the other versions of Arirang. But it’s really nice to listen too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPxZ4R_6PLs (Cho Young Pil 2005 @ North Korea)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w83IEduXceE (Cho Young Pil)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wo47IO9zYY (Byeon Yeonghwa)

In this world, there are so many languages being used by different countries and different tribes, popular ones and unpopularones. Surely there will be a lot of similar artful things embedded in every corner of the world. They have already marched through the years. Shall we search them?