who needs to go to monastery?

sometime in september 2019 during my extended trip, a friend suggested me to visit a monastery to seek higher meaning of life. little did he know, nor i haven’t yet shown him the collection of videos i took.

 

one of the destinations was a beach called la barra. sitting on the edge of a national park, the nearest city is buenaventura, a 40min speedboat ride away. without portable water nor internet/wifi, i think i slowed myself down, if it were just for a mere 72 hours.

ps. the beach is actually much brighter and safer than it appeared in the video, if it had gotten your heart pounding a bit faster and harder.

Mangkhut 山竹

Mangkhut isn’t your typical fruit (name contributed by Thailand) and ravaged the Philippines (where over 100 lives perished) and led to chaos and damages in Hong Kong unseen in recent history.

 

Trees were found two months blocking passageways or dangling next to pavements.  If there is a take home message that get hammered from time to time yet ignored but the majority of the populace, it’s “climate change”. It’s here and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon and it might well get much worse.

如果有不寫不快、時間限定的題目，颱風山竹就是我2018年趕收工前必要寫的！論樹木倒下之量、清理所需時間、延誤交通之程度都應該是近年之最！

印象中巴士服務很少在8號風球除下以後受阻，但山竹這次使到部份偏遠路線幾日、甚至一星期才恢復！Bus services never missed a bit for anything weaker than a No.8 typhoon signal were seriously disrupted for up to a week for certain remote routes, especially in the New Territories.

不可不談的是樹木本身。作為一個過度發展、過度建築的城市，香港的老樹、大樹真是買少見少。這回我（應該是街坊）『聞』見（粵：嗅覺）某些倒下的大樹竟然是麝香四散沉香之流，更聽說有部份市民在食環署清理時爭相檢走砍下的木塊。我驚訝之餘覺得就算沒有偸木賊，環境變更令到猛烈颱風襲港也令樹木悲慘收場！

And on to the trees that fell, I was surprised to learn some were fragrant emitting agarwood-like that were uprooted. That certainly was the case near a bus terminal in my neighbourhood where many trees were down. A breeze with the pleasant scent not normally there signaled the end of those trees, which took years to grow to their considerable grandeur and more likely irreplaceable in this over-built city.

 

 

partie 3 sur 3  des contes de mars 2018  texte original chinois par ‘oncle hung jai’

中文作者：雄仔叔叔    三月開古 原文 三之三
ça donne l’air de grande amitié
ce petit terroir de voisin
en le passant, il me demande
ça va aujourd’hui?
peut-être un peu mieux
je débarrasse plus ma mère comme avant
m’arrête et la réponds prudemment
avec vieillissement on se sent fatigué
le scrutin supplémentaire d’aujourd’hui est franchement
une mauvaise nouvelle sans la dire
visant un tombe couvert de sol noir
il semble que un autre voisin
essaye de planter des gingembres
c’est vraiment une question de choix
quelqu’un a déjà coché ce p’tit terroir
bricoler sur place changeant du terroir à la maison
devient une affaire de millionnaire
je vois que leurs p’tits neveux
ne chassent plus parmi les terroirs et les eaux
je sais qu’il ne faut pas les forcer
mais je veux encore qu’ils sachent
ce vocabulaire qui le rend debout et inspiré
quel beau paysage
… … …

好像是老朋友了
鄰居這小塊耕地
走過它會問我
今天怎樣
好了一點罷
我再不像以前敷衍阿媽
停下腳步認真答
老之將至 人就是累
今天補選結果本來就是
壞消息不說了
看見一個土敦敷了黑土
聽說另一個鄰居
嘗試種點薑
這真是一個選擇的問題
已經有人打這小塊耕地的主意
搞個農地轉屋地就是
過千萬的生意
我看見他們的小子姪
再不在田埂流水奔逐
我知不能勉強
但仍想他們認識
這樣叫人昂首呼吸的詞語
風光明媚

 

2018.3.12

雄仔叔叔