Sunday, February 17, 2008

Reciting a Chinese Poem

I worked for several hours trying to upload the recording of the poem Rebekah and I recited, but have in the end given up. If anyone is interested in listening to it (it's about a minute long), just email me at wpenman@gmail.com and I'll get it to you within a day or two.

The recitation itself went really well. Rebekah and I were part of a Chunjie celebration at Du Fu's Cottage. Du Fu was a really famous poet in the 700s, and he lived in Chengdu for a few years, so there's a whole tourist attraction to memorialize him. The feature is a renovated version of the thatched-roof cottage he lived in, but the park itself is huge and really beautiful.

I put some pictures online which you can look at here: http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2466139&l=bb180&id=2061111

And here's a translation of the poem. It would've been cooler if I could have provided the sound file of me saying it in Chinese, but that's how things go, I guess.

Welcoming Night Spring Rain

Du Fu

Good rain knows when to come,

when spring is here it arrives.

It silently slips into the night with the wind,

silently making the soil fertile.

It covers the countryside with dark clouds,

only from boats by the riverside can you see light.

At daybreak you can see red wet things:

bright flowers all over Chengdu.

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