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 Listen to Shirley Singing the Poem in Chinese March 14, 2016
Listen to Shirley Singing the Poem in English
Listen to Shirley Explaining the Poem & Follow Me to Read It
Follow Shirley to Read the New Words & the Poem
Read Shirley's Comments about This Poem March 10, 2016
See Shirley Created Paintings for the Poem March 11, 2016
 Hello, friends, today, I would like to introduce a little easy but quite interesting Chinese classical poem which is consist of numbers.
About the AuthorThis is a poem was created by an anonymous person. Even though there are several versions about its author or the dynasty which was created, they are uncertain. Therefore, here, we do not need to discuss about it.
The Main Meaning of the Poem and the Lyrics of the Song in English
Have A Look Over, Two, Three Miles
By An Anonymous Author
Have a look over, two, three miles,
Four, five houses in a village with smoking chimneys
Six, seven pavilions (and) towers on the mountains,
Eight, nine, ten flowers by the road,
Eight, nine, ten flowers by the road.
Eight, nine, ten flowers by the road.
Original Poem, Lyrics of the Song in Chinese and Pronunciations
You can click on any Chinese Character to open the New Character Board and see its Chinese pinyin, meaning, pronunciation and follow me to read it, you can also click on the links to enter the Painting Column, to see more paintings and art notes that I wrote for the poem.
筝篋筝 - Y朝 wng 竪r sn l
羂 - W炭 M鱈ng Sh狸
筝篋筝 - Y朝 wng 竪r sn l鐚
篋絎 - y c笛n s狸 w ji鐚
篋伾筝綺 - T鱈t叩i l狸u q朝 zu鐚
箙 - b ju sh鱈 zh朝 hu
箙 - b ju sh鱈 zh朝 hu
箙 - b ju sh鱈 zh朝 hu
Enjoy the Poem
There is only four lines, twenty Chinese characters in this little poem, but includes 10 numbers from one to ten, and just with the so less characters and so many numbers, it has "painted out" a beautiful landscape includes several little views for us.
Now let us learn it one line by one line:
The first line: 筝篋筝 - Y朝 wng 竪r sn l. 筝 y朝, num. means one; wng , v. wng means look over, gaze into he distance; 篋 竪r, num. means two; 筝 sn means three鐚 l, here is a Chinese unit of length ( = 1/2 kilometer ), for helping you remember, here I just translate it as mile . This line means, when I have a look over, I can see the view over the two or three miles away. In this short line with five words, there are three numbers: One, Two, Three.
The second line: 篋絎 - y c笛n s狸 w ji. yn, n. means smoke, here means the smoke from kitchen chimneys; c笛n, n. means village; y c笛n, phrase, means the village in the smoke from the kitchen chimneys? s狸, num. means four; 篋w, num. means five; 絎ji, n. means house, family. This line means there are four or five houses in the village which is covered by the smoke from the kitchen chimneys.
In this line, you can find another two numbers: Four, Five.
The third line: 篋伾筝綺 - T鱈t叩i l狸u q朝 zu嘆. 篋t鱈, n. means pavilion; t叩i, n. means tower, platform; l狸u, num. means six; 筝q朝, num. means seven; 綺zu嘆, n. seat, place, here it is a measure word for mountains, buildings, and other similar immovable object. This line means there are six or seven pavilions and towers over there or on the mountains.
In this line, includes two numbers: Six, Seven.
The fourth line: 箙 - b ju sh鱈 zh朝 hu b, num. means eight; 箙 ju, num. means nine, sh鱈, num. means ten; zh朝, n. branch ,swig, here it is a measure word for the long, thin, inflexible object, for example a gun, a flower, three pencils. This line means there are eight, nine or ten flowers here or there, I imagine by the road. :- )
In this line includes another three numbers: Eight, Nine, Ten.
When we have learned this poem until now, we can feel a very clear characteristics of this poem. That is the author has skillfully used numbers to create a big (includes several small) beautiful landscape or prospect.
Therefore, it has been chosen into the books for Chinese children and the textbooks of Chinese elementary schools. Many Chinese children can recite it as soon as they can speak. :-)
 Inspiration
1. Sometimes, if we can organize something simple together, thing can be clearer, cleaner and even more beautiful. So, no matter a manager, an artist or a writer, no matter we are studying or working, we have to try to train us to have the ability to be able to make those complicated things simple, then we can manage a company, design a painting or write an article more efficiency, beautiful or wonderful.
2. The combination of something rational and emotional sometimes can help thing more perfect and mellow and full. Usually, numbers are something more rational and poem is something more emotional, but, when both of them were combined together cleverly, interaction, they have created a special artistic result. This is similar to the situation, when we use a cold color, we mix a little bit warm color into it. Although it is still cold color, but the painting result is much more better. Also like we cook, when we want to cook a dish with the salt taste, but we put into a little sugar inside, the dish is still salt, but the taste has been changed more delicious.
I guess this is just the reason why a smart manager or a president enjoy his or her company or even a country having a multi-culture instead a pure or a single culture?
I had created my first music to match this poem in 2005 and then I created three paintings to match both of the painting and the music in 2007. Recently, as soon as I came back from the USA in Feb, 2016, I had some new idea on creating a  new painting and writing a new article for it. So, now, I have re-done the painting, music, translation, articles and so on. I do hope what I have done will be some help with your Chinese culture and language study.
If you have any questions, comments and suggestions, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn . You are also welcome to publish your opinions in Message Board as well.
Shirley Yiping Zhang
Written, Sung, Translated and Recorded on March 6, 2016/ July 12, 2010/Nov 4, 2005~~~罩ゅ莨ヤ賢膺肢
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Classical Poems/Lyrics
