Sing a remembrance

moon lute returns to mind

“Sing again, memories I recall”

Songs remembered come back to haunt after an unpredicted time passes. I was casting my mind around, after a forced trio of writing, not wanting to go back too soon to having a heavyweight dropped into my thoughts again,

when this song in Mandarin Chinese by Zhèng Yí echoed ghostly in the distance. The version I remember most fondly, a woman's voice calls forlornly that repeated line above, and flute leads strumming guitar pattern, in remembrance through another instrument, a lute body shaped like a moon.

The first key lyrics as I understand them:

“Sing again the songs of home mountains

“Walk endless broken roads

“Like generations journeyed before us”

“Hugging an old moon lute

“Few notes make melody

“The aged player holds the song

“But not the forever legend it contains”

Ha! So you think I'm just channelling an old chap nostalgic about the now inaccessible past, perhaps?

Look around again. On this island of humanity, your childhood is already lost in the mists of forgetfulness.