Mar 15, 2016

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 Author】This 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.


一望二三里 - Yī wàng èr sān lǐ

无名氏 - Wú Míng Shì

一望二三里 - Yī wàng èr sān lǐ，
烟村四五家 - yā cūn sì wǔ jiā，
亭台六七座 - Títái lìu qī zuà，
八九十枝花 - bā jǐu shí zhī huā。

八九十枝花 - bā jǐu shí zhī huā。
八九十枝花 - bā jǐu shí zhī huā。

【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: 一望二三里 - Yī wàng èr sān lǐ. 一 yī, num. means one; 望wàng , v. wàng means look over, gaze into he distance; 二 èr, num. means two; 三 sān means three；里 lǐ, 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: 烟村四五家 - yā cūn sì wǔ jiā. 烟yān, n. means smoke, here means the smoke from kitchen chimneys; 村cūn, n. means village; 烟村 yā cūn, phrase, means the village in the smoke from the kitchen chimneys? 四 sì, num. means four; 五wǔ, num. means five; 家jiā, 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: 亭台六七座 - Títái lìu qī zuò. 亭tí, n. means pavilion; 台tái, n. means tower, platform; 六lìu, num. means six; 七qī, num. means seven; 座zuò, 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: 八九十枝花 - bā jǐu shí zhī huā。八 bā, num. means eight; 九 jǐu, num. means nine,   十 shí, num. means ten; 枝 zhī, 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~~~此处输入中文翻译