User Comments - bill
bill
Posted on: Taking it all off
February 22, 2009 at 6:12 PMbabardwan's lesson summary with 拼音 (pīnyīn)
clothing (yīfú)
穿 chuān
穿衣服 chuān yīfú
穿裤子 chuān kùzi
穿鞋子 chuān xiézi
穿袜子 chuān wàzi
smaller things/accessories (小东西／饰品 xǐaodōngxī/shìpǐn)
戴 dài
戴帽子 dài màozi
戴手表 dài shǒubiăo
戴戒指 dài jièzhi
戴眼镜 dài yǎnjìng
戴隐形眼镜 dài yǐngxíngyǎnjìng
taking off (脱 tūo)
脱 tūo
脱衣服 tūo yīfú
脱鞋子 tūo xiézi
脱裤子 tūo kùzi
脱帽子 tūo màozi
不可以用脱:戒指,眼镜,少东西 bùkěyǐ yòng tūo: jièzhi, yǎnjìng, shǎo dōngxī
Something I always remember from another lesson: 脱 拖鞋 tūo tūoxié （take off slippers). The use of the two tūo sounds fun and instructive.
Bill
Posted on: Eating Dead Flesh 猪吃死人肉
February 20, 2009 at 4:32 PMSpeaking of William Carlos William, below is a beautiful poem he wrote in 1923. I think it ressembles Chinese poetry and also has a haiku flavor to it:
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
--------
In a book in Jack Kerouak's "On the Road" series, he describes a visit he and his friends made to William Carlos Williams' farmhouse. They asked him for some advice, and he apparently looked out the same window where he saw the red wheelbarrow and said something close to, "There are a lot of SOB's out there!" This has stuck in my memory since the 60's when I read these books ...
Bill
Posted on: Eating Dead Flesh 猪吃死人肉
February 20, 2009 at 5:36 AMJust saw this poem, and the first thing that came to mind after doing my own rough translation is the buddhist vow "to save all sentient beings."
This poem uses contrast to point out how identical we are as species. We are the opposite ends of the same stick so the old saying goes.
I really like the final line and my take on it is that when we mutually stop "eating one another" in all the ways that we do, then anything is possible !
That peace, true peace can only arrive when we put our appetites aside, and yes, vow to save all sentient beings.
Put your finger near a spider and it flees. How then can one then kill this creature understanding this simple, subtle awareness?
Bill
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 3: Prenatal Checkup
February 18, 2009 at 7:03 AMjennyzhu,
I've good Chinese friends, a couple, here and when their first child was born in 2004, the husband's parents came all the way from 昆明 to stay with them. They managed to stay about 4 months and since both of the new parents worked, it was super helpful.
The upside for us is that we enjoyed many delicious Southern Chinese meals, and learned some Chinese too. The mother-in-law was a teacher.
Bill
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 3: Prenatal Checkup
February 18, 2009 at 6:49 AMOur only child was born in 1968 in that then village in California called Gilroy that is now famous for its Garlic Festival. Well, Lamaze came on the scene in 1967-68 and we along with our friends read about it and did our own sessions. Worked fine.
As I was helping my wife with her breathing in the hospital room and carefully timing the contractions, according to Lamaze info our child was due in 18 minutes. It was 2A.M. I told the nurse and she scoffed.
She returned a few minutes later to measure the dilation and it was 10cm. She started sweating because she hadn't yet called our Ob-Gyn. We'll happily Gilroy was a small village. He arrived in five minutes, my wife was zipped into the birthing room, and guess what? Our daughter was born at 2:18A.M.
A beautiful baby girl (-:
Bill
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 8: Trimming the Fat at the Office
February 18, 2009 at 6:35 AMhenning,
"Wow! Implied comparisons. Once again, Chinese proves to be the C++ of languages. Operator overloading (运算符重载) anyone?"
I'm not sure that's a complement (-:
But, in defense of what you intend, at least 汉字符重载 has contextual semantics.
Bill
Posted on: Drinking Alone Under the Moon 月下独酌
February 12, 2009 at 6:57 AMHi Pete,
Yes, I do enjoy 寒山诗. I've an excellent compilation of his poems, "The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain." They are translated by Red Pine.
At first I struggle along character after character on my own to get a personal sense of what is being said, and for sure, at times I've no way to understand the ancient meanings therein.
Still a fun effort.
bababardwan,
很好的比喻的望远镜Bill，我很喜欢
I'm happy you like my telescope metaphor. Good poems inspire such things ...
Thanks to both of you,
Bill
Posted on: Simple Electrical Stuff
February 11, 2009 at 7:50 PMgodombola,
Bienvenue ! CPod est très fort comme cours en Mandarin. Les profs sont sympats et doués. On en a pour son argent !
Amicalement,
Bill
jdough422,
I use the built-in internationalization to switch between English (or whatever native language one is using) and 汉字。It's a simple keystroke to switch.
Bill
Posted on: Drinking Alone Under the Moon 月下独酌
February 11, 2009 at 2:52 PMHi Pete,
I agree with you 100%. In fact, I thought your interpretation of each line was a perfect rendering of the poem.
I often look at the moon with my telescope. I can see the shadows cast by the craters. And when I peer into the vastness of space near almost any star there are thousands visible.
A good translation is much like a telescope isn't it.
Looking forward to the next poem. I thought about this one all day long yesterday.
Bill
Posted on: Taking it all off
February 22, 2009 at 7:23 PMHi dunderklumpen,
"Note: 衣服 (clothes) is yīfu in pinyin."
Oops, right. fú is a neutral tone there.
Ah well, 还是很好练习 ..
Thanks for the lesson link.
Bill