Poignancy from June’s Poems by Hui Cheung-wai

Poignancy is the third movement of the substantial suite June’s Poems for flute and guitar by Hong Kong composer Hui Cheung-wai. The suite included four movements with a total duration of 25 minutes. This work was composed between 1991 and 1992 for the incident of June 1989 and premiered in 1992 by Peter Chan (Flute) and Stephen Chau (guitar). 


In this movement the piercing and rustic sound of the piccolo, together with percussive timbres from the guitar express the agony under pressure, with the consequent outburst of unbearable grief. The primitive scream of emotions with the dissonant music creates the high tension as the climax of the suite.


This recording is from the live performance as the same  performers of premiere at June 2013, with the poet Chan Chi-tak recited his poem which inspired by the music. Here’s the poem translated in English and the original Chinese :




Painful calls of spring  —  Chan Chi-tak


Gunshots drown the sporadic calls of spring 
Try to remember, and remember, but bound to be mistaken 
Faced with the tanks time and again 
We cannot hide our fear but can only forge ahead 


Roars in unison are not the voices of our times
This age is advanced and harmonious in its advance
For no reason, the crying birds fly in opposite directions and become divided 
Singing discordantly about harmony cherished by our times


Gunshots drown sporadic human voices 
Try to forget, and forget, but bound to visualise again 
None of the struggles in life can compare to 
The shocking moment of the approaching tanks 


Why do we keep silent? Why do we weep?
The world is noisy and yet quiet 
Television strives to dumb us down 
Web pages delete texts like hurried demolitions


Let the roars be heard until we meet again 
My friends, are the birds’ songs only a replay of our songs of farewell?
It’s twenty years since, yet more ills are immediately before our eyes 
The candles are never too weak, only our vision may be too narrow 




劇痛春啼   –   陳滅


槍響淹滅斷續春啼
盡量憶記、憶記又總錯認
那怕生命已幾番臨遇坦克在面前
難掩怯懼也唯有搔頭再上迎


嘯聲不在這時代應和
這時代先進更先進地和諧
啼鳥不知怎地分飛更分化
不協和地互唱成就這時代願見的和諧


槍響淹滅斷續人語
盡量遺忘、遺忘又總重見
生命中每一趟掙扎也許都不像
那一刻坦克臨近的愕然


為什麼禁聲？為什麼嗚咽？
時代喧囂卻噤若寒蟬
電視致力降低我們的心智
網頁刪去文字如更多急遽的拆遷


嘯聲何妨響遍直至我們相見
朋友，鳥語是否只是我們重播的驪歌？
廿多年遠去再有更多疾首相近在目前
不怕燭火虛弱只怕我們的視野太淺