Samuel Phua
A Fleeting Perennity by Koh Cheng Jin (Sax and Piano Version)
A Fleeting Perennity by Cheng Jin Koh
Inspired by the poem 'A Fleeting Perennity' by Sun Ping Yu
Performed by Samuel Phua (sax) and Julian Chan (saxophone)
Recorded at MusoSpace by Kenneth Lun and Qiuzi Hu.
《剎那的永恒》
--望财富之泉有感
每天晨早坐在你脚下
仰望
从青铜弧柱倾泻的激流
咆哮着 击撞着
直坠泉底
一头刚醒的上古神兽
怒吼声响彻空荡的地下室
那是连镜头都无法完整捕捉的景象
财神早在二十多年前
派你来镇守这片城域
福庇后世昌荣繁盛
你也一直恪尽职守
白天汲取八方川流聚于掌心
精心组建的祝福浸润行人
夜间亦披着霓虹彩裳
无声照亮加班人的归程
你那波澜不惊的目光
早被皱折的眼皮遮藏
却不忘瞅着楼窗背后
成立又迁出的公司
开张又停业的店铺
还有无数波波碌碌身影的去离
途中,有零星水珠提先递交辞呈
它们一跃而上
化成被阳光挥散的雾气
有的选择守约前行
推搡着在泉底相聚
可惜那儿并非终点
只是目送的转站
还没等好好挥别
就被后抵的水流催散
或许在你看来
我们都是稍纵即逝的过客
为自己的生活而焦虑而奔波
从不曾为你回头驻足
而身处历史浪潮必然的淘濯下
你是否也曾疑惑
自己只是他人眼中漂泊无依的沙粒?
也罢!此时的我们
在转瞬的拐角得以暂息
端着早点和咖啡
相视而无言
却在哑笑中做伴
做彼此刹那间的永恒
A fleeting perennity
- thoughts at the foot of the Suntec fountain of wealth
At your foot every morning
I look up
at cascading streams from curved bronze pillars
bellowing and clashing,
a steep plummet to the bottom.
a beast awakened from its ancient slumber
whose sleepy mumbles echo in the empty basement.
Such is a scene that camera lenses fail to capture in its entirety.
More than twenty years ago,
the god of fortune had dispatched you to watch over this place –
ensuring prosperity and flourishment
- which you have dutifully done so.
Flows of all directions gather, at the heart of your palm in the daytime
Transforming into well wishes to bestow upon onlookers
As night falls, you drape on neon-coloured gowns
Lighting up the homeward journey of exhausted over-timers.
Those all-knowing eyes
hidden behind those folded, laden lids
Yet never stopping watch over surrounding towers
At offices moving in and out
At shops opening and closing
And countless workers join and leave.
A few droplets tendered in an early resignation en route
leaping from the gushing waters
evaporating into vapour under sunlight.
Others stayed behind
Gathering at the bottom of that fateful fall, only to realise
that the end is but an entrepôt
as they are pushed away by ensuing streamlets
before a chance to bid farewell.
Perhaps we are all in your eyes
fleeting passer-by in transit
all too worried over our own lives
to pause, to remain
Yet as you stand in the inevitable tide of history
Do you ever wonder if you are, in the eyes of others
A transient fleck of sand?
But at least for now
we can take solace by the twinkling of time
with breakfast and coffee in hand
locked eyes and unuttered words
to keep company with a knowing smile,
In a fleeting moment of perennity.
Sun Pingyu's imaginative mandarin poetry on the Fountain of Wealth in Singapore's Suntec City provides a refreshing, moving outlook of the magnificent structure. Paying homage to its origin and function as a symbol of prosperity and life, she especially illuminates the fountain's unwavering duty as a quiet defender of the city's busy inhabitants. Despite it being a manmade construct (unlike the Casuarina tree), its microstructures, in fact, are an honest reflection of a modern city uprooting itself again and again. Every drop of its waters, ephmeral and swiftly vanishing, are akin to transient sights and sounds that once passed it by. But through them all, it remains a lasting source of light and comfort, especially to those caught in the daily repetition of exhaustion and anxiety. As momentous as these waters are, they are also very much eternal.
The music is permeated with pulsating ostinati to accentuate their seamless continuity. Navigating between meditative and passionate states, one traverses both the subconscious and conscious realms led soley by the music. The beginning theme gradually blooms without obligation to develop, only to return near the end after periods of transformation. At the forefront is various shifting harmonies, which seek to constantly evoke the gentle, hypnotic imagery of reconfiguring lights dancing through each specatcular ray of gushing energy. The Alto Saxophone's warm timbre is frequently cast against the Yangqin's soft, shimmering arrpegiations, producing a pleasant, sonic reverbance that could seem to ring forever.