This is my favourite Chinese poem, "To Tan-Ch'iu" by Li Po aka Li Bai 李白 † 762. Translated by Arthur Whaley:
My friend is lodging high in the Eastern Range,
Dearly loving the beauty of valleys and hills.
At green Spring he lies in the empty woods,
And is still asleep when the sun shines on high.
A pine-tree wind dusts his sleeves and coat;
A pebbly stream cleans his heart and ears.
I envy you, who far from strife and talk
Are high-propped on a pillow of blue cloud.
A little film. Highly Chinese. Highly entertaining. Worth a look if you've 10 mins to spare. Chinese, English subtitles. Includes more of Li Bai's poetry:
Incidentally the "star of Venus" 白星, after which Li Bai was named, literally means "white star" so the poet's given name, Bai (Li being the surname) really means white or clear. A lot of his poems are "celestial" in theme.
Anyone who speaks fluent Mandarin might like to watch a 40-minute documentary on my random blog, here. I think it will be quite some time before I have any hope of following this link ;-)
Here's a Burmese Poem, The Emerald Lake:
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Burmese/literature/Poetry/Mrakan.htm
Burmese Poem: Emerald Lake:
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Burmese/literature/Poetry/Mrakan.htm
Burmese short story (also in English): http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Burmese/literature/Short_Stories/Ma_Le
Ah ! you are in China now ! honnestly I prefer the Rolling Stones to the chines meows I don't want to offend anybody, but that's just a question of taste !
ReplyDeleteChinese opera - you must have heard it. That really does sound like a cat being strangled to me!!
ReplyDeleteMandarin Chinese does sound VERY alien. Far stranger than Thai, which is quite pretty, and harder to copy than Cantonese which most people know from Chinese takeaways and restaurants. There is a wierd sound where you have to turn your tongue backwards and pronounce an American-sounding rrrr and lots of sounds somewhere between the ch in church the sh in shop. V hard to get right!!
I'm having far less trouble with the writing. I have a good memory for characters... absolutely no idea why, when they're supposed to be so notoriously difficult. Maybe that difficulty is just a myth. I don't know