Poem Text in Vernacular Chinese
While the sound changes merged sounds that had been distinct, new ways of speaking those concepts emerged. Typically disyllabic words replaced monosyllabic ones. If the same passage is translated into modern Mandarin, it will not be that confusing. The following is an example written in Vernacular Chinese, along with its pronunciations in Pinyin; Chinese characters (simp.) with pinyin transcription added using ruby annotations.
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| Chinese characters (trad.) | Chinese characters (simp.) | |
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《施氏吃獅子記》 有一位住在石室裏的詩人叫施氏，愛吃獅子，決心要吃十隻獅子。 |
《施氏吃狮子记》 有一位住在石室里的诗人叫施氏，爱吃狮子，决心要吃十只狮子。 |
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| Pinyin Transcription of the Vernacular Chinese | ||
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«Shī Shì chī shīzi jì» Yǒu yí wèi zhù zài shíshì lǐ de shīrén jiào Shī Shì, ài chī shīzi, juéxīn yào chī shí zhī shīzi. |
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Read more about this topic: Lion-Eating Poet In The Stone Den
Famous quotes containing the words poem, text and/or chinese:
“Every poem of value must have a residue [of language].... It cannot be exhausted because our lives are not long enough to do so. Indeed, in the greatest poetry, the residue may seem to increase as our experience increases—that is, as we become more sensitive to the particular ignitions in its language. We return to a poem not because of its symbolic [or sociological] value, but because of the waste, or subversion, or difficulty, or consolation of its provision.”
—William Logan, U.S. educator. “Condition of the Individual Talent,” The Sewanee Review, p. 93, Winter 1994.
“I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“One alone in a Chinese square
confronted tanks, while others fled.
He stood for freedom for us all,
but few care now if he’s jailed or dead.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)