Music 329: Shirley Created Music 136 for Chinese Classical Poem: Bie Dong Da -- A Farewell Song For Dong Da By Gao Shi - Jan 30, 2012 / July 4, 2010/ Dec 4, 2005

Listen to Shirley Singing the Poem in English & in Chinese Jan 30, 2012
Listen to Shirley Singing the Poem in Chinese & in English Jan 30, 2012

Listen to Shirley Explaining the Poem & Follow Me to Read It & the New Chinese Characters

Follow Shirley to Read the Poem & the New Chinese Characters

  Learn the Meaning of the Poem

See Shirley Created   Paintings for the Poem Jan 30, 2012

See Shirley Created   Paintings for the Poem July 03, 2010

Now it is the season to say Good Bye or Good Luck, because, on your side, you just had your Christmas and New Year's Day, and on my side, we are still in the Chinese Spring Festival Vacation.

Usually, no matter who we are, to be the one to go out of the home to go on a future road, or to be the one to see someone else off, there are certainly some sad feelings in our hearts, even though we are speaking some blessing words each other.

Anyway, in a little but very famous Chinese classical poem - Bie Dongda ? A Farewell Song for Dong Da that I would like to introduce to you today, instead of expressing the general sad feelings, it expresses a very positive, optimistic feelings. Therefore it has been enjoyed by Chinese people since it was created by Tang Dynasty ( 618 -907) poet Gao Shi (704 - 765).

As one of the 10 Jie Du Shi in Tang Dynasty, firstly, Gao Shi was a governor who was in charge of both civil and military work in several provinces, he had a very   positive life attitude to work for the country in the frontier area, meanwhile, he wrote a lot of long poems to appreciate the landscape of the frontier and the hard life in the war fields with a very optimistical attitude, expressed most of the people’s   positive emotions in the Glorious Age of Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, he was one of the most important and representative poets of the heroism poetry genre of Tang Dynasty in Chinese literature or poetry history.

In the little poem with just four lines that was written for his good friend Dong Da -- Dong Lanting who was a famous musician before Dong would leave for his travel in a heavy snow.   

Instead of writing it as a sad poem as many poets had done, Gao Shi wrote it with confidence and the words of encouragement. :-)
  
I love the positive life attitude and the beautiful picture that the language has painted out in the poem, therefore, I created a piece of music to match it Dec 4, 2005, and then I created a painting for it July 4, 2010.   

This weekend, as soon as I came back from my travel, I painted a new painting to match it. And by the good help from my music Prof. Meng Weiye, My British English Tutor Mike, J, American English Tutor Mr. William G. and Chinese English Tutor Xiaogao Z, I have re-written the music, re-translated the poem, re-sung it and re-made the record for you.

I do hope that our effort will be some help with you to learn Chinese language and culture.

Main Meaning of the Poem :

Yellow clouds stretch for a thousand miles, covering the sunlight,
The north wind blows the wild geese through the flurrying snow.
Don't worry there is no a dear friend on the future road,
In the world there is no one who does not know you.

Translation by Beijing Star-light Translation Center:

A Farewell Poem to Dong Da by Gao Shi

The sun in dimly white,
the 1000-Li clouds yellow,
The cold wind blows the wild geese in drifting snow.
Don’t worry about any bosom friend ahead of road;
All over the native land, everyone knows you.
  
Chinese Characters & Pronunciations:

You can clink any Chinese Character to open the New Character Board and to see its Chinese pinyin, meaning, pronunciation and follow me to read it, also, you can hit the links over to enter the Painting Column,or you can directly enter the art notes on the painting that I created for this poem to see my painting and art notes for the poem


别董大

高适 (704-765)

千里黄云白日曛 - Qiānlǐ huángyún báirì xūn,,
北风吹雁雪纷纷 - běifēng chuī yàn xǔe fēnfēn。。
莫愁前路无知己 - Mòchóu qiánlù wú zhījǐ,
天下谁人不识君 - tiānxià shuírén bù shí jūn。


If you have any questions, comments and suggestions, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn or shirleyz004@yahoo.com. You are welcome to publish your opinions in Message Board as well.

Shirley Zhang
Written, Sung, Translated and Recorded on Jan 29, 2012/ July 4, 2010/ Dec 4, 2005