Showing posts with label tang poems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tang poems. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Spring Morning春晓 [Meng Haoran](Tang Dynasty)

From:http://www.learnchinesewithme.com/learn_chinese/chinese_culture/chinese_history/chinesepoetry/20080109/144.html

Spring Morning

chūn mián bú jué xiǎo , chù chù wén tí niǎo。
春 眠 不 觉 晓 , 处 处 闻 啼 鸟。

yè lái fēnɡ yǔ shēng,huā luò zhī duō shǎo。
夜 来 风 雨 声 , 花 落 知 多 少 。


Meng Haoran (Tang)

Into my slumber in spring steal beams of morning light,
And now to my ears come the voices of birds all around.
Yet I heard the sounds of winds and rains in the night,
I wonder how many flowers are fallen down to the ground.
Comment

The unique poem starts with the singing of the birds, the blowing of wind, the pattering of rain and the falling of petals on a spring night;then by virtue of synesthesia the reader can visualize spring scenes after a windy and rainy night with his own imagination. It is a great joy to read the poem for its simple lucid style and the ringing message-another spring morning has arrived unnoticed and another cycle of life has finished unawares, as is shown in the opening and falling of spring flowers. Thinking of spring that comes once a year, one cannot help feeling pathetic about the flight of time.

On the Stork Tower登鹳雀楼 [Wang Zhihuan](Tang Dynasty)



from:http://www.learnchinesewithme.com/learn_chinese/chinese_culture/chinese_history/chinesepoetry/20080109/145.html
On the Stork Tower

bái rì yī shān jìn,huáng hé rù hǎi liú。
白 日依 山 尽 , 黄 河 入 海 流。

yù qióng qiān lǐ mù ,gèng shàng yì céng lóu。
欲 穷 千 里目 , 更 上 一 层 楼。


Wang Zhihuan(Tang)

Along the mountains sink the last rays of sun,
Towards the sea the Yellow River does forward go.
If you would fain command a thousand miles in view,
To a higher storey you are expected to go.
Comment

This poem shows what the poet sees and feels about as he ascends the high Tower. In the first two lines, he turns his eyes from the setting sun beyond the high mountains in the distance to the Yellow River at his feet, which flows out of sight eastward into the sea. What a sublime, anoramic picture of the vast land! Then he comes up with the masterful line "If you would fain command a thousand miles in view, To a higher storey you are expected to go" and its allegorical meaning by blending landscape, emotion and philosophical thinking in the short verse.