露 滌 音 清 遠,
Lù dí yīn qīng yuǎn,
風 吹 故 葉 齊。
fēng chuī gù yè qí.
聲 聲 似 相 接,
Shēng shēng shì xiāng jiē,
各 在 一 枝 棲。
Translator’s Glossary
|
CHARACTER
|
PINYIN
|
DEFINITION
|
POSSIBLE SYNONYMS
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 蟬 | chán (n.) | leaping, chirping insect | cicada, cricket, grasshopper |
| 吹 | chuī (v.) | to move in a way that creates an air current | blows, gusts, blusters |
| 滌 | dí (v.) | to wrinkle and contract | shriveled, dried up, withered |
| 風 | fēng (n.) | the perceptible natural movement of the air | wind, breeze, gust, airstream, current of air |
| 各 | gè (pron.) | used to refer to the total of two or more people or things, regarded and identified separately | each, all, each and every, the whole lot |
| 故 | gù (adj.) | having the characteristics or showing the signs of age | old, decaying, crumbling, frayed, disintegrating |
| 露 | lù (n.) | water droplets on cool outdoor surfaces | dew, water droplets |
| 齊 | qí (v.) | to become linked or connected to | come together, join, link, unite, team up with |
| 棲 | qī (v.) | to alight or rest on something, especially something high or narrow | perching, roosting, resting on something (like a bird in a tree) |
| 清 | qīng (adj.) | perfect and unblemished | clear, pure, clean, untainted |
| 聲聲 | shēng shēng (v.) | to shed tears audibly | cries, weeps |
| 似 | shì (prep.) | indicates characteristics; resembling | as if, is like, are like, similar to, such as |
| 相接 | xiāng jiē (v.) | to intermingle | join, come together, join each other, blend, bring together, merge |
| 葉 | yè (n.) | parts of a plant that grow from a stem | leaves, foliage |
| 一 | yī (adj.) | used to distinguish one from another | one, solitary, singular |
| 音 | yīn (n.) | distinct kind of sound | tone, sound |
| 遠 | yuǎn (adj.) | not physically close | far away, distant, remote, far- off, far |
| 在 | zài (prep.) | indicates position | is on, lying on, resting on |
| 枝 | zhī (n.) | part of a tree that grows out of the trunk | branch, bough, limb |
Artistic Elements
I. About Quatrains
A quatrain is a four-line stanza, rhyming with various forms for example:
ABAC or ABCB (known as unbounded or ballad quatrain), as in Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide
And I am next of kin
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May’st hear the merry din.
AABB (a double couplet); see A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young.”
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by.
And home we brought you shoulder-high
Today the road all runner come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home.
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Bio
Xuē Tāo is one of the few known female poets from the Chinese Tang dynasty—a period that lasted from 618 to 907 AD. Xuē was taught to write poetry at the age of eight by her father, a minor official in the Tang dynasty. Sadly, he died while she was still a child. The regional military governor was impressed with her wit and intelligence and made her his official hostess, which allowed her to meet the famous poets of the time. Xuē was a great calligrapher and invented a new type of writing paper used for recording poems. The Wangjiang Tower, over one hundred feet tall, was built in her memory and is a popular tourist destination overlooking the Jin River in Chengdu, Sichuan. The poem shown here was probably written during her childhood.