Ancient．Contemporary

Ancient．Contemporary
Naamyam x Song Dynasty Lyrics x Hakka Dialect x Digital Mixing

Farmers in the northern knolls work hard in their fields.
Rice at the western creek is ready to harvest.
My neighbour pours wine to cook the skinny fish.

The rain from somewhere brought a sudden chill,
And swept away the clouds,
Leaving behind the sound of hawkers, from the village over the bamboo forest.

The idle window in the small courtyard casts a deep colour of spring.
Heavy curtains, undraped, reflecting sombre shadows.
Leaning silently against the wall, I tune my mandolin.

Clouds below the distant peak form a veil of sunset.
Drizzles brought by a soft wind brushes a tone of grey.
The pear blossom is going to wither, I'm afraid.

With a song of lyrics and a goblet of wine,
I sit at the same pavilion in the same weather as last year.
The sun is setting, but when will it return?

The flowers shrivel helplessly.
Is the swallow that I once know is coming back?
Along the fragrant path of the garden, I wander alone.

The first two lines of the lyrics is from The Regular Happenings Along the Mountain Route of the Melody of the Sandy Creek, written by Xin Qiji, a Song Dynasty lyricist. Jaffa Lam likes the way it describes the good life in the farms and happy times in the village.
The next verse came from the version of The Melody of Sandy Creek written by female lyricist Li Qingzhao, who wrote four different sets of lyrics for this melody. Jaffa Lam thinks this particular one is most suitable for this project – The Melody of Sandy Creek: The Idle Window of Courtyard in Deep Colour of Spring.
The last verse came from An Zhu of the Northern Song Dynasty, his version of The Melody of Sandy Creek: A Song of Lyrics and a Goblet of Wine. Jaffa Lam said that it expresses her role as an old timer from Sam Tung Uk revisiting the house, and feeling nostalgic about the people who lived there and things that happened there in the past.The alignment of the three sets of lyrics reflects Jaffa Lam's sentiments towards Sam Tung Uk. She said: "My immense sadness seeing the place changed from thriving to empty, and looking back. The sequence is from tangible to intangible, form external to internal, from dawn to dusk, and from bliss to melancholy."