Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei: Beginning and Ending

by sswiftstrike

This is my first attempt at a Romance of Three Kingdoms' work. Also, my first attempt at playing with a type of Chinese poetry format and Chinese symbolism. One Chinese poetry type is 5 characters per line, but since I can't write Chinese, I translated that to 5 words per line.

Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei: Beginning and Ending

Three times, visiting you came

Below two magpies1, we met

While chrysanthemums2 bloomed, I pledged

Your dragon I will be

You a lion3, I foresee

Many years later, at Baidicheng4

Exhausted, you broke willow twigs5

My apple trees6 now dead

At Huiling7, your eternal bed

I planted pines8, lay chrysanthemums9

1 Magpies mean happiness and two magpies symbolize marriage

2 Chrysanthemum is a symbol of forever

3 Lion is a symbol of royal power in Buddhism

4 Where Liu Bei died

5 Breaking willow twigs is a symbol of formal leave-taking

6 Apples are a symbol of peace because the word for apple, in Chinese, sound the same as the sound for peace

7 Where Liu Bei was entombed

8 Pine is a symbol of solitude and thought to provide protection when planted near graves because the mythical creature Wang Xiang (罔象), who devours brains (so basically zombies) are afraid of pines

9 In addition to the meanings I listed above, chrysanthemums are also thought to symbolize people maintaining their virtue despite temptation and adversity. They're also given at funerals.