Read and Sing the Poem "鳥鳴澗" in the Traditional Holo Language

#2020-0716

As one of the teachers invited for the Er-Ya Chinese Summer Camp (兒雅中文夏令營), this afternoon Jean taught how to read and sing the classical poem "The Gully of Twittering Birds" (鳥鳴澗) in the traditional Holo language.

This short poem was written by Wang Wei (王維, 699-759) during the Tang dynasty. Wang's poems have been cherished from generation to generation because many of them are just like impressive pictures or paintings that can be seen with the eyes; many of his quatrains (絕句) "depict quiet scenes of water and mist, with few details and little human presence." And the poem Jean taught this afternoon was as follows:

人閒桂花落，

夜靜春山空；

月初驚山鳥，

時鳴春澗中。

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Sweet laurel blooms fall unenjoyed,

Vague hills dissolve into night void.

The moonrise startles birds to sing,

Their twitters fill the dale with spring.

Note 1: The above English translation is taken from: https://kknews.cc/zh-mo/education/qybko8g.html

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Note 2: The three translations below are copied from: http://pkulaw.cn/fulltext_form.aspx?Db=qikan&Gid=1510076047&keyword=&EncodingName=big5&Search_Mode=

Bird Call Valley

        (Translated by Pauline Yu, 余寶琳）

Man at leisure, cassia flowers fall,

The night still, spring mountain empty;

The moon emerges, startling mountain bird

At times they call within the spring valley.

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The Gully of Twittering Birds

        (Translated by Yang Xianyi, 楊憲益)

Idly I watch the cassia petals fall

Silent the night and empty the spring hills;

The rising moon startles the mountain birds,

Which twitter fitfully in the spring gully.

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The Dale of Spring Birds

        (Translated by X. Y. Z, 許淵沖)

I hear osmanthus blooms fall un-enjoyed;

In still night hills dissolve into the void;

The rising moon arouses birds to sing;

Their fitful twitter fills the dale with spring.

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Note: The following translation is taken from Tang Poems in Original Rhyme (原韻英譯唐詩精選), page 93, translated by C. K. Ho (何中堅).

I'm at leisure as cassia flowers fall;

Still is the night

           in the empty mountain of spring.

The rising moon

           startles mountain birds;

At times, by the spring brook they sing.

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相關文章 (See also)： 《鳥鳴澗》詩中有畫