User Comments - tommaz

Posted on: Saying Good-bye at a Tavern in Nanjing -- 金陵酒肆留别

Wow, I go away for a couple weeks and when I get back, my favorite series ends? 哎呀！ 怎么办？

Thanks to everyone involved with this podcast. I had been trying to read Tang poems in the original for quite some time, but always got tripped up over archaisms and allusions. You guys were wonderful at clearing all that up and allowing us to just enjoy the poetry.

As a footnote to the discussion of parting songs, I'd like to mention "Restless Farewell" by Bob Dylan from his 1964 album "The Times They Are A-Changin'".

I believe it's a Dylan-ish adapatation of the one you played in the podcast. Same guitar style, but he sort of inverts the conventions of the farewell song with the last line. Here's a link where you can listen to the first verse for free.

Restless Farewell
by Bob Dylan

Oh all the money that in my whole life I did spend,
Be it mine right or wrongfully,
I let it slip gladly past the hands of my friends
To tie up the time most forcefully.
But the bottles are done,
We've killed each one
And the table's full and overflowed.
And the corner sign
Says it's closing time,
So I'll bid farewell and be down the road.

Oh ev'ry girl that ever I've touched,
I did not do it harmfully.
And ev'ry girl that ever I've hurt,
I did not do it knowin'ly.
But to remain as friends and make amends
You need the time and stay behind.
And since my feet are now fast
And point away from the past,
I'll bid farewell and be down the line.

Oh ev'ry foe that ever I faced,
The cause was there before we came.
And ev'ry cause that ever I fought,
I fought it full without regret or shame.
But the dark does die
As the curtain is drawn and somebody's eyes
Must meet the dawn.
And if I see the day
I'd only have to stay,
So I'll bid farewell in the night and be gone.

Oh, ev'ry thought that's strung a knot in my mind,
I might go insane if it couldn't be sprung.
But it's not to stand naked under unknowin' eyes,
It's for myself and my friends my stories are sung.
But the time ain't tall,
Yet on time you depend and no word is possessed
By no special friend.
And though the line is cut,
It ain't quite the end,
I'll just bid farewell till we meet again.

Oh a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract, and bother me.
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face,
And the dust of rumors covers me.
But if the arrow is straight
And the point is slick,
It can pierce through dust no matter how thick.
So I'll make my stand
And remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn.

Posted on: Two Poems about Music -- 弹琴 and 听筝

Another great lesson, and I'll echo what everyone else has already said: the increased length is a good thing.

Personally, I'm a fan of the classical orientation of this series. It helps us listeners get a grounding in the shared culture of the Chinese-influenced world.

Also, compared to the few modern Chinese poems I've read (which tend to be free verse), the classical poems exploit more of the unique characteristics of Chinese: tones, compactness, and repeated sounds. Which isn't to say I think Chinese literature should stay in a state of arrested development; I simply have a fondness for the classics.

Posted on: Welfare Lottery

我在哈尔滨学中文的时候，老师让我们读老舍的一篇幽默散文叫买彩票。有人读过吗?

Also, I found the line in the dialogue "看来数学没白学" particularly funny because there's a saying in the States that the lottery is a tax on people who can't do math. I guess that's the irony of something like a Welfare Lottery (or, in the States, lotto money going towards education): it's taking money from those who need it to give it to those who need it. Like an unambitious Robin Hood: rob from the poor, give to the poor.

Posted on: Tomb Sweeping Festival -- 清明

@ lotsofwordsandnospaces and pearltowerpete

In a college linguistics class, my prof once demonstrated syntactical ambiguity by showing us the following headlines:

British Left Waffles on Falklands

Red Tape Holds Up Bridge

The Columbia Journalism Review frequently collects these kinds of lists, which are always good for a laugh.

Posted on: Tomb Sweeping Festival -- 清明

@ lotsofwordsandnospaces and pearltowerpete

In a college linguistics class, my prof once demonstrated syntactical ambiguity by showing us the following headlines:

British Left Waffles on Falklands

Red Tape Holds Up Bridge

The Columbia Journalism Review frequently collects these kinds of lists, which are always good for a laugh.

Posted on: Grass 草

I'm a CSer myself, too (for a while, one of the only active ones in Harbin). I wonder how many there are on CPod.

@ Bill

Thanks for the insight into the French commentary. Fascinating stuff.

I'm a really big Blake fan myself. Here's a link to an electronic copy of the illuminated manuscript of Songs of Innocence and Experience at the Blake Archive, as well as the poem you posted, with original artwork by Blake himself.

Posted on: Grass 草

@cassielin

I think 斩草除根 would be "to cut off at the roots" or "to pull up by the roots" in English.

I love the reading in Hokkien: beautiful, and gives a new perspective on it.

Great lesson linking two of my favorite poets in the world, Bai Juyi and Walt Whitman. I'd like to note, too, that grass features prominently as a symbol of impermanence in the Hebrew Bible (i.e. the Old Testament):

Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth. (Psalm 90:5-6)

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. (Isaiah 40:6-8)

Interestingly enough, the ancient Israelites' concept of an "afterlife" was much closer to that of Whitman and Bai than it was to anything we'd recognize as "religious."

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 4: Fetal Attraction

On the nature/nurture discussion, check out this article by Steven Pinker from the New York Times a few months ago. Turns out that so far, genetic testing can pretty much just tell us things we already know.

As far as pre-natal education, does anyone know if there's actually any proof that it's effective? I can imagine there being a correlation rather than causation (i.e. over-concerned parents tend to be wealthier and more educated).

Posted on: Dog Meat and Animal Rights

I think tied in with this whole discussion of animal rights is economic status. In developed nations, where the standard of living is already very high, we can exert more effort on secondary* issues like animal rights. In developing nations, such issues take a back seat to economic development and agriculture (see this week's Advanced Lesson and Poems with Pete for that topic).

That said, I am a vegetarian for many reasons, one of which is animal rights and factory farming. When I lived in Beijing and Harbin, I found that many Chinese didn't really understand vegetarianism. “你吃素吗？那，你吃鸡肉把？” (shaking head, pause) “真的吗？”

As proof of this point, I offer an example of a sign** for a restaurant specializing in dog meat near the Harbin Institute of Technology which my brother and I found. Very happy pups, considering they're about to be eaten.

I also think the original lesson intro was funny.

*I know that to many animal rights isn't a secondary issue, but I think that human rights should receive primacy.

**I'm not very good with computers, so I couldn't embed the photo.

Posted on: 中国和西方的农民

说课程的变化，我觉得例句很有用。Chinesepod从来多重视了词汇，不太重视语法。这个新部分很好。谢谢!