China Blue

(see the glossary at the end of the poem).

I had seen him in the market,

I had glimpsed him in the rain,

I had tried to pick his trail up

On the Wenzhou-Hangzhou train,

Then he’d seen me drinking Kafei

In a little Shanghai Ba,

And had run the length of Nanjing Road

And fled in a jiao che.

 

He was Sun Peng Fei, her brother,

She was Sun Ye Ling, I knew,

But I’d always caught her smiling

When I called her China Blue,

She was sweet, and very pretty,

And I’d fallen for her, hard,

In the village school at Ping Yang

When I saw her in the yard.

 

We had taken to each other

And I’d tried to learn Chinese,

But she warned me of her brother,

He was grim, and hard to please,

And her parents had been angry

When they heard of me one day,

They had told her older brother

‘She’ll not marry a yang wei!’

 

At the end of the semester

China Blue had disappeared,

And I asked the Zhongwen lao shi

If it was as I had feared,

She’d been taken by her parents

And her brother to Shanghai,

Thinking I could never find her,

But I knew I’d have to try.

 

A needle in a haystack

Would be easier than this,

There are twenty million people

In this huge metropolis,

But I knew that I would see them

If I watched the Nanjing Road,

In that swarm of Christmas shoppers

I stayed put, and watched the crowd,

 

A week before that Christmas

I could see them, in a queue,

Lining up for western presents,

Mother, father, China Blue,

Then I tapped her on the shoulder

And she turned and smiled at me,

So I took her by the hand

And then I whispered ‘Wo ai ni!’

 

‘Wo ai ni,’ she answered gladly

Flung her arms around my neck,

While the mother screeched at father,

And the father shook his head,

But they came with me together

And we sat in Mei Don Lao,

Where I slipped rings on her finger

And I made a solemn vow.

 

Then the mother, I won over,

And the father gave a grunt,

They agreed we should be married

If that’s what we really want,

And the brother, he’s no trouble

We go drinking, bowling too,

And I’m soon to be a father

With my love, my China Blue!

 

David Lewis Paget

 

(Glossary:

Kafei - (Karfay) - coffee

Ba - (Bar) - Bar

Jiao che - (Jow Tcher) - Taxi

Peng Fei - (Peng Fay) - male name

Ye Ling - (Yer Ling) - female name

Yang wei - (yang way) - Foreign devil

Zhongwen Lao shi - (Jongwen Lao Sher) - Chinese teacher

Wo ai ni - (war I nee) - I love you

Mei Don Lao - (May Don Lao) - MacDonalds)

Reviews

[therin]

Thank you for not shirking the language barrier. Stumbled upon you and am now absorbing your entire home page... such realism, life experience, emotions, genuine personalities and dancing rhymes.

You tend towards making me smile, and that is always welcome. Thank you.

[Penlady]

Your mighty effort and strength reminds of the great wall of China in contrast to the delcate China Blue perfectly envisioned as a lovely blossom. True love wins over no matter what the language. You cover so many fascinating, but realistic situations with such artistic flair.

[Tate Morgan]

Now this was a lesson in life for sure we are becoming one people after all

[TL Boehm]

First - I am relieved that the subject matter didn't take a turn for the dark. I also love the interspersed Chinese throughout the piece. Not many poets do that effectively. This is lovely - a bit romantic and as I am coming to expect - technically brilliant.

[BlueDreams]

A very new age write Sir..Just awesome :-)

[Alessander]

What a great story. It seems right out of one of those romance comedy moments when the man realizes what a fool he was and goes through extreme lengths to catch the gal at the air port, or whatever.

The rhythm, narration, rhymes and stanza all worked intricately and seamlessly. Like any good story, I wanted to find out what happened, so you excelled in creating an arc and suspension.

I also learned a little Chines, or Mandarin, or Cantonese, or whatever lol

Good stuff, Yang wei.