I

    To satiate my hunger, I casually walked into a Chinese restaurant with a strong old-school vibe. The signature dishes were all written on the wall tiles, accompanied by traditional couplets...…

      Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, a taste of life. 

      Colors, aroma, and flavors for you to savor.

      甜酸苦辣贯人生

      色香美味任君尝

        Between the two of us, we ordered two simple dishes……

    Four cups, all submerged in hot water, for customers to sterilize them. This process of heating the cups was brimming with the ritualistic flair of Cantonese tradition.

      Moments later, bitter gourd stir-fried with chicken arrived, dotted with fermented black beans. Tofu and minced pork were drenched in a thick, rich gravy. The two bowls of white rice were actually steamed in iron bowls, yielding a soft, steaming accompaniment to the dishes.

       The owner's emphasis on traditional inheritance was evident. The hospitality was neither obsequious nor arrogant.

        The meal was satisfying.

II

      After eating our fill, we returned to the inn, continuing to talk about the lingering flavors. Finally, the conversation turned to the couplet on the restaurant wall.

     Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, a taste of life. 

     Colors, aroma, and flavors for you to savor.

      甜酸苦辣贯人生。

      色香美味任君尝。

       The couplet was initially amusing, but upon rereading, it felt a little awkward and unconventional.

        What was wrong?

          (1) Both the upper and lower couplets ended with a level tone.（平声）

         (2) The tones of the two lines should not be completely identical; they should be contrary in both tone and meaning.

          (3) The word order of the two couplets was not matched either. Color should go with color, adjective should go with adjective, and noun to noun. From this writing, it shows the writer did not follow the rules. 

   Bitter and spicy (parallel) doesn't match flavors (attributive/modifier-head). Moreover, the most perplexing part was the last three words of the couplets. At first glance, the last three words of both couplets are verb-noun-verb. But upon closer inspection, the “life” in “a taste of life” does not refer to the “life” in “production.” It refers to human life, the process of living, and should be categorized as a noun.

        (4) This also created inconsistency in the word order. “君尝” (You savor) is a subject-verb structure. “人生” (Life) is attributive/modifier-head structure.

      Perhaps the owner just thought these two sentences were interesting and wrote them on the wall for amusement, nothing more.

III

        Ironically, the writer was unconcerned, but the reader was interested. I've been studying traditional poetry and prose lately, so I had a sudden idea: could I try my hand at this couplet?

      I liked the line “Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, a taste of life” because it brought out the essence of life from mundane details. Following tradition, I arbitrarily kept it as the lower couplet, which ends with a level tone.

      My friend preferred “Colors, aroma, and flavors for you to savor,” saying that it defined the restaurant's culinary focus.

     My friend also suggested that we should rewrite it with minimal changes out of respect for the original. My friend's rational approach to the wording made me realize that writing is not just a matter of emotional impulse.

         Then, my friend went to bed and started snoring……

      Two hours later, seeing me still at the table with my phone glowing faintly, he mumbled, “Are you obsessed?”

         “Today's work, today's finish,” I replied.

        “Go to sleep, we need to climb the mountain in Port Dickson tomorrow……”

          I stayed up all night, not for show, but to challenge myself.

IV

      The next day, before our trip, I nervously handed the semi-finished product to my roommate and also sent it to my poetry teacher via phone. Here are the variations I came up with:

         1  Frying, stir-frying, pan-frying, steaming, a skillful display.

             Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, a taste of life.

         2  Four seasons, each with its own flavor. 

             Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, a taste of life.

         3  Unique culinary tricks beckon guests. 

             Colors, aroma, and flavors for you to savor.

      

       1

      炸炒煎蒸翻两手

      酸甜苦辣贯终生

      2

      春夏秋冬皆有味

      酸甜苦辣贯平生

      3

      笔墨奇招迎客到

      色香美味任君尝

V

      In our elementary school textbook, we read an essay called “Port Dickson Travelogue,” about a father taking his children to swim at the beautiful beach. I had no recollection of Port Dickson having towering hills. This time, we climbed the mountain to see the lighthouse, then followed a fork in the road to the White Stone Mountain. Then, like monkeys climbing rocks, we reached the top of the Stone Mountain to see the white waves of the Strait of Malacca……

        Hiking up and down the mountain took us three hours. Along the way, I couldn't help but think: these activities will be impossible for those who are too young or too old. It’s a matter of both physical strength and willpower.

        Isn’t it the same with studying traditional poetry and prose? Traditional poetry and prose emphasize meter and parallelism, requiring careful thought and a deep accumulation of knowledge. If you’re too young, you lack patience and experience. If you’re too old, you might become stuck in the past, fossilized, with stale ideas and a lack of creativity.

         Life is full of uncertainties and dilemmas.

VI

       Before going to sleep, I received a reply from my teacher. She offered a brief critique of my practice……

      1 Frying, stir-frying, pan-frying, steaming, a skillful display. Sweet, sour, bitter and spicy, throughout my life. My teacher thought the second line, “throughout my life,” was inappropriate.

       2 Four seasons, each with its own flavor. Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, throughout my life. My teacher thought that since the upper couplet had “flavor,” the second line also mentioning flavor was repetitive.

      3 Unique culinary tricks beckon guests. Colors, aroma, and flavors for you to savor. My teacher quipped, seeing the restaurant's tricks, who would dare to patronize this place?

        An unrefined couplet can't be published.

        How could I sleep without finishing my assignment?

        For the next few days, the couplet became my meditation.

   During the day, we followed our itinerary, visiting the TelukKemang, the Seremban Folk Culture Museum, the traditional food center run by the Hainanese Association, the cemetery, and the first rubber tree transplanted to Negeri Sembilan from Singapore…… We basically saw everything worth seeing. In the evenings, I transformed into a different person, silent and seated upright, immersed in a world of my own. My roommate, finding it boring, said nothing and went to sleep early.

        The quiet nights were filled with turbulent thoughts…

        You can't walk on one leg. It takes both Western and Chinese learning to create a masterpiece. Western learning brings new perspectives and stimulation, while Chinese learning lays the foundation for a person's steady character. The May Fourth Movement (五四运动) rejected the eight-legged essay, but didn't literary masters like Yu Dafu (郁达夫) and Lu Xun (鲁迅)  write excellent regulated poems?

     Perhaps couplets should also have variations, breaking new ground to reveal stunning beauty.

VII

          On the fifth day, I left Seremban.

      On the sixth day, I returned to Singapore and slept for a whole day.

        On the seventh day, my couplet was finally approved. Here are the final versions:

      1  Fry, sauté, sizzle and steam. A skillful bravura. 

         Sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, a small taste of life.

      2 Four seasons, each with its own unique ingredient. 

         Salt, pepper, sauce, vinegar, a symphony of spices.

      

      1

      煎蒸炸炒凭双手

      苦辣酸甜贯一生

      2

      春夏秋冬 款款食材皆本色

      椒盐酱醋 星星佐料引天香

      Thankfully, I didn’t have to follow in the footsteps of Tang Dynasty poets who had to wait two hundred years for Shi Yannian of the Song Dynasty to write the lower couplet,

 “The moon, without hate, is always round,” 

to match the line, 

“If heaven had feelings, heaven would grow old” 

by the poetic genius Li He.

      天若有情天亦老

      月如无恨月长圆 (李贺)