Another well-known Chinese literary format, Tang Poem, is usually formed by 4 lines, five characters for every line or alternatively seven. The poem format emphasizes the maintenance of rhythmes, parallelism of characters, and the balance of “tones”. “Pinyin”(such as’Tang’ and ‘Wangwei’ in the title) together with four tones indicate the pronunciation of each character.
These 3 poems in this clip are masterpieces of Wangwei. Wang Wei(699-759) was a prestigious poet in Tang Dynasty, a musician, painter and statesman at the same time.
For his writing style….you will hear Mozart in his poems.
Translations of the three poems:
Deer Park (Translated by Gary Snyder)
Empty mountains no one to be seen.
Yet – hear –
human sounds and echoes.
Returning sunlight enters the dark woods;
Again shining
On the green moss, above
Lovesickness (Translated by Wang Daoyu)
The berries red in the south land grow,
How many shoots in spring it brings?
May you gather as many as you can,
For my lovesickness these things best stand.
Untitled (Translated by Crystal)
Coming from our hometown,
You ought to follow all the news, my friend
Shall I ask about the plum flower by my window,
Any blossom on the branch?
Read and Produced by Crystal Zhang.