괜찮아요

Recently, because of technology, we receive news about the disasters and unrest from different parts of the world at just a click. Putting aside all the pros and cons about using technology to our advantage [or disadvantages], I just want to highlight something which can be quite disturbing.

Last weekend, I was awed when I saw an sms which was supposed to be a poem by a famous poet Li Bai [Tang dynasty] and it actually predicted the Sichuan earthquake in the same year as the Beijing Olympics:

北暮苍山兰舟四
京无落霞缀清川
奥年叶落缘分地
运水微漾人却震

but as much as I was amazed and impressed by how the great poet actually had the ability to predict the tragedy a few hundred years back, I wanted to find out the title of the poem.

And guess what? A quick search online revealed that there was NEVER this poem; never existed! In fact, there were previously two other versions which netizens had “cooked” up:

日暮苍山兰舟小，
本无落霞缀清泉。
去年叶落缘分定，
死水微漾人却亡。

and

法暮苍山兰舟家，
国无落霞缀清乐。
去年叶落缘分福，
死水微漾人却亡。

这诗是这样的，真正的来源是——侠客梦第四卷：江湖搏命第一百零一章日暮苍山兰舟小作者：燕随心。这里仅仅作为文章的题目所体现出来。剩下都是爱国人士所撰写的。

还有刘长卿《逢雪宿芙蓉山主人》较为接近。我想这是今人假托中华诗歌以至唐代诗歌的顶级巨星李白之名义而要表达一种民族的愤慨与爱国之情罢了。刘长卿《日暮苍山》原文是：

日暮苍山远，天寒白屋贫。

（写诗人投宿山村时的所见所感）
柴门闻犬吠，风雪夜归人。

（写诗人投宿主人家以后的情景）

Well sorry, I am just disgusted by the distortion of facts. The netizens are very creative, and I must say that they are concerned with current affairs. However, to mislead people with false information shouldn’t be encouraged. What’s more, this sms has been so widely circulated [it started from China and it's now circulating widely in Singapore too] that it makes people believe it’s real! And so I realize that 1) IF I wasn’t IT-inclined, I would probably have taken the sms as it is and believed it, without stumbling upon this fact by googling it; 2) IF I wasn’t IT-inclined, I would have never realized it was not a poem which held the prediction since hundreds years ago.

Okay fine, and IF technology wasn’t this advanced, I probably would have never received that sms nor rant here.. hahaa~ :p However, bottomline is: one should be responsible and NOT spread untrue information around isn’t it?