Ying Chen divides her time into "Busy days" and "Empty days":
When she wants to be busy, often in her mind, she plans to translate a selection of extracts from ancient Chinese poems, with her understanding and feeling about the spirits, the aesthetics and the historical background of this vast literary corpus, She would try to keep the work as much simple, accurate and inclusive as possible, hoping to provide, not as a scholar but as a poetry lover, an entry point or a window, to ordinary readers.
When the mind is quiet, Ying Chen will write poems in Qing Ping form, trying to erase first the verb, then eventually the word "I". This writing would be less as a literary practice than as a way to record some plain moments of life.
Ying Chen values her empty days very much. Here the chosen poetical form, Qing ("Q" could be pronounced as "TSh") Ping Yue (清平乐) -- "the air of peaceful simplicity", is an ancient form created very early in the history, inspired by the musical air having the same name, It became popular around 1000 ACE at the Song epoch.
Our shortened form of Qing Ping contains only four verses. The number of syllabes is specified for each verse: 4/5/7/6. Rhyming can be flexible.
The main topic of this poetry is about NATURE.
It is a way to meditate.
This very brief and restrictive form helps to evoke the void within the fullness, the silence between the words.
“Isola” is Ying Chen’s solitary workshop, and also a place to meet.
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The site is renewed at the end of each month. It is designed for no more than 15 minutes of the reading time. The contact remains available for about two months or more.
Poetry belongs to EVERYONE. We hope that many people would enjoy reading and also writing, in ANY PREFERRED LANGUAGES, the poems in Qing Ping form, accompanied sometimes, when and if possible, with the image of a drawing, a painting, or a photograph.