Listen to Shirley Singing the Poem in Chinese & English June 17, 2012Listen to Shirley Singing the Poem in Chinese & English Feb 25, 2012Follow the Music to Sing the Poems by Yourself
Listen to Shirley Introducing & Explaining the Poem
Follow Shirley to Read the Poem & Chinese Characters
Learn the Meaning of the Poem With Shirley TogetherSee Shirley Created Picture for the Poem June 14-15, 2012See Shirley Created Picture for the Poem Feb17-24, 2012See Shirley Created Picture for the Poem Oct 09, 2010See Shirley Created Picture for the Poem August 22, 2010See Shirley Created Picture for the Poem March 14, 2010See Shirley Created Picture for the Poem Feb 13, 2010See Shirley Created Picture for the Poem July 19, 2008Original Poem, Lyrics of the Song in Chinese and PronunciationsYou can click on any Chinese Character to open the New Character Board and see its Chinese pinyin, meaning, pronunciation and follow my reading, 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.
江畔独步寻花 —jiānɡ pàn dú bù xún huā
唐—táng （618-907）
杜甫 —dù fǔ （712-770）
黄四娘家花满蹊 —huánɡ sì niánɡ jiā huā mǎn xī,
千朵万朵压枝低 —qiān duǒ wàn duǒ yā zhī dī。
留连戏蝶时时舞 —liú lián xì dié shí shí wǔ，
自在娇莺恰恰啼 —zì zài jiāo yīnɡ qià qià tí。
黄四娘家花满蹊 —huánɡ sì niánɡ jiā huā mǎn xī,
千朵万朵压枝低 —qiān duǒ wàn duǒ yā zhī dī。
留连戏蝶时时舞 —liú lián xì dié shí shí wǔ，
自在娇莺恰恰啼 —zì zài jiāo yīnɡ qià qià tí。The Main Meaning of the Poem and the Lyrics of the Song in EnglishFinding Flowers Alone by the River
By Du Fu(712-770)
Tang Dynasty (618-097)
Ms. Huang Si's path is covered with blossoms,
Numerous flowers are bending the branches low.
Playful butterflies are dancing, unwilling to leave,
Carefree cute birds are singing “qia qia”.
Ms. Huang Si's path is covered with blossoms,
Numerous flowers are bending the branches low.
Playful butterflies are dancing, unwilling to leave,
Carefree cute birds are singing “qia qia”.About the PoetDu Fu 杜甫 dù fǔ(712-770) was born in today's Henan province during Tang Dynasty (618-907). He is one of the greatest poets in the history of Chinese poetry.
Du Fu had a very good home education; he had been writing poetry since he was 5 and started to learn Chinese calligraphy when he was 9. He communicated with adults through poetry from the age of 15 or 16.
His first travels were in Wu and Yue—today's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and he knew another equally great poet of Tang Dynasty—Li Bai at the age of about 20. At that time, his poems were very positive and full of dreams.
When he was 22 years old, he failed in the imperial examinations but he stayed in the capital Chang'an city—Today's Xi'an for about 10 years, living a very poor life, and he got to know much about the lives of common people. His poetry entered into a new phase, that was Realism.
As a follower of Confucian philosophy, Du Fu cared for the future and fate of the country and he wished to have an opportunity to work for the country;however, it wasn't until he was 44 years old did he have the opportunity to become an officer.
In 755, the Rebellion of An and Shi led the country into a civil war lasting for about 8 years. During that time, Du Fu became a fugitive,experienced a harder and poorer life and his poetry reached its highest peak.In 770, when he was 58 years old and on his way back to his hometown, Du Fu died on a boat.
Du Fu experienced the decline of the Tang Dynasty from its most prosperous times and his poetry reflected the whole of this process, so people said his poetry was “Poetry of Historic Significance”. Meanwhile, he developed the traditional Chinese poetry forms.Either long or short poems, he could write them excellently.
Du Fu's poetry has been influential among poets for about 1,200 years.There are about 1,400 of his poems still in existence.
Enjoy the PoemThis poem was written in 761.After experiencing the hardship in the Rebellion of An and Shi(755-763) which started in Central China, Du Fu went to Chenɡdu, Sichuan,where he built a thatched cottage by a stream in the Western Suburbs of Chengdu so that he had a resting place temporarily. With an easy heart, he walked by the river, enjoying the beauty of flowers in the warm spring, and then he wrote seven poems of Qi Jue（七绝） (a four?line poem with seven characters each line and a strict tonal pattern and rhyming scheme).
Jiang Pan Du Bu Xun Hua is the 6th poem of the group of Qi Jue.
The first two lines: 黄四娘家花满蹊,千朵万朵压枝低—(Huánɡ Sì niánɡ jiā huā mǎn xī, qiān duǒ wàn duǒ yā zhī dī)—Ms. Huang Si' s path is covered with blossoms,numerous flowers are bending the branches low .
The first line writes about the place where the poet found the flowers. They are just on the road by Ms. Huang Si's house and have covered the road already. The second line describes how the flowers are big and many. they are tier upon tier, so that they have bent the branches low.Both of the two lines emphasize the flowers' quantity and size,and they have covered the road and bent the branches.
The last two lines:留连戏蝶时时舞, 自在娇莺恰恰啼—(liú lián xì dié shí shí wǔ, zì zài jiāo ｙīｎɡ qià qià tí)—Playful butterflies are dancing, unwilling to leave, carefree cute birds are singing “qia qia" .
They have attracted the butterflies“ 留连ｌｉú ｌｉáｎ”—lingering and dancing over them, not wanting to leave; they fascinated the yellow birds singing among or over them.
By writing about the actions of the butterflies and the sounds of the birds,the poet hints to us how beautiful the flowers are!
The phrase “时时舞ｓｈí ｓｈí ｗǔ”—often dance writes about how the butterflies dance; and “ ‘恰恰'啼ｑｉà ｑｉà ｔí—sing ‘qia qia' ”writes what the birds sing, with the visual language, and helps us “see” a beautiful view,“smell” the fragrance of the flowers,“listen to”the wonderful sounds and “feel” the emotion of happiness. These not only endue the little poem with a dynamic feeling, but also give the poem a very bright and fluent rhythm.
Because the poet himself was happy at the time to find the flowers, he felt everything in the happiness, the lovely butterflies dancing for him and carefree cute yellow birds singing for him.
Through empathizing the poet's feeling towards the butterflies and birds, endowing them with human feelings, this poem blends the object and subject, natural scenery and human feeling together, and creates its own artistic result, brings us to the little path of 1,250 years ago, helps us to enjoy the beautiful natural scenery as well as shares the poet's feeling of delight.
Inspiration:Projecting the poet's happy feelings onto the natural things that he was writing about is the main characteristic of this poem.
The transfer of the human feeling to some object, can help us create some wonderful art work, such as this poem. However, in the real world,we should never bring any personal feeling into work. Especially,we should not transfer any bad emotion into management art.
Years ago, a friend gave up her opportunity to study abroad, because she wanted to do her best for the company that she had given her best time to. Instead of going to the consulate to get her visa at the appointed time, she wrote a work report over several weekends and many nights. With an excited heart, she gave her report to her boss on the Monday morning. Instead of getting any appreciation, her boss frowned. With so much surprise, disappointment and frustration, she re?made the appointment at the consulate, got her visa and left for the other side of the ocean.
Later, her boss apologized to her and explained that he had been in big trouble that day, so that he could not help losing his temper with the one who entered his office first. However, things could not be retrieved.
Transfering feeling is a good method in art creation;but it is not a good thing to take personal feeling to work. Do you agree?
To this day, I still remember how I recited this poem with an enjoyable heart on a little path in the campus of my first university on a sunny morning. Then I translated this poem into English and created a piece of music for it in 2006. Since then, I have created more than 10 paintings for it. But now, I would like to show you the last one that is my assignment at Chinese National Academy of Arts in 2012. I do hope my effort will be of some help for you in learning Chinese language and culture.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please write to
shirley@ebridge.cn .
Shirley Yiping ZhangSep 15, 2012 in Beijing
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This is my 75th
Combined Paintingthat I have created / painted for Chinese Classical Poetry,
my 708 painting since 2003;also, it is my 101st assignment in Chinese National Academy of Arts since Oct, 2011.
It is the 10th time that I created/painted a painting to match the same Chinese classical poem. This is the 4th time I did it after I came to CNAA as well.
Also, this weekend, I re-sang and re-corded the song by the good help from my first music teacher, Ms. Ma Xun in our last music lesson -- she will go to Xian tomorrow and settle down there this Summer.
I do hope this time you find both of my painting and singing better than last time and it will be some help with you to learn Chinese culture.
Main Meaning of the Poem :
Find Flowers by the River Alone
By Du Fu ( Tang )
Mrs.Huang Si's path is covered with blossoms,
Numerous flowers are bending the branches low.
Playful butterflies are dancing, unwilling to leave,
Carefree cute birds are singing "Qia Qia".
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 江畔独步寻花 -- Jiang Pan de Bu Xun Hua
杜甫 ( 唐 )-- Tang Du Fu (Tang )
黄四娘家花满蹊 -- Huáng Sìniáng jiā huā mǎn xī,
千朵万朵压枝低 -- qiān duǒ wàn duǒ yā zhī dī。
留连戏蝶时时舞 -- Liúlián xìdié shìshì wǔ，
自在娇莺恰恰啼 -- zìzài jiāo yīng Qià Qià tí。
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, welcome to write to
shirley@ebridge.cn or
shirleyz004@yahoo.com ,you can also publish your opinions on
Message Board . :-)
--Shirley Zhang June 17, 2012
