China the Beautiful

[yvonnechan]

Hi,

Do any of you know this love poem? Could anyone help me to locate a modern version (easier to understand version) of this poem ? I have found the english translated version first - used widely by Americans at weddings. But since I am Chinese, I am hoping to have someone read this poem in Chinese at my wedding instead.

Note: some of the chinese words are too difficult, and I don't really know what they mean.

Here are the info that I found so far:

Chinese version:


English translated version:
http://www.eharlequin.com/cms/onlinereads/readsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3MDQRG0BYI1UZLAUEAKSAOQ?pageID=021101rp08001

You and I
Have so much love
That is
Burns like fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me
Then we take both of them,
And break them into pieces
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you
And a figure ofme
I am in your clay
You are in my clay
In life we share a single quilt
In death we will share one bed

Thanks in advance.
_________________
ennovY

[chinapage]

Dear Yvonne:

First, congragulations on your forthcoming wedding.

The original Chinese text is from my web site at
http://www.chinapage.com/Love/love-poetry.html

The poem was written by Quan Daosheng [Kuan Tao-sheng]
of the Yuan Dynasty. The words are the lyrics meant to be sung,
but unfortunately the original song is lost.

As for the translation, the last word in the last line should
not be 'bed' or even 'coffin.' I think a truer translation is
'cyrpt' or 'tomb'. The sentiment is to be buried together,
but the coffin is never opened for the second burial.

The Chinese words are not 'literary' but very 'common'. It was
meant to be understood by the ordinary people who may not
have much education or even learned to read. It is very
much in the style of conversational Chinese, as opposed to
literary written Chinese.

Because of this, some of words do not appear in the classroom
textbooks.

Though the text is over 600 years old, it is still quite readable
for people on the street who speak certain dialects.

There may be a CD recording available?

Ming

[yiukwokwai]

Dear Yvonne,

Congratulations to your coming wedding. But I won't recommend you to read this poem in the wedding gathering. The last sentence is not considered "lucky"

For your consideration.

Julian.

[chinapage]

Generally, the Chinese do not like to mention 'death' in a conversation because they think it's unlucky. However, I would not be deterred by it.

After all, doesn't the standard wedding vow contain the words,
'till death do us part"?

Ming

[yvonnechan]

Your advices are all very true and valid. Actually my fiancee is very concern about some of those words ("til we die" etc). Therefore, I had already dig up the thesaurus to find words to customize our vows already.

For the english version of this poem, probably I can use a different translation for the last sentence " .... nothing shall ever keep us apart". It doesn't include any of those words - "death", "coffin" etc..

But for the chinese version, it will be very tough for me to translate - as my chinese level is not that high - I only a very low grade for my chinese class. And I do not know the meaning of any of these words below:

箇 , 衾 , 槨

Maybe I have to stick with the english version, but for sure, I will include the chinese text in my wedding program - as we are chinese.

Thanks for all your good wishes, suggestions and help.

P.S. Will chat with you in the future again.. I should probably read more of the postings in these forums to help improve my chinese level again..
ennovY
_________________
ennovY

[chinapage]

箇 = unit. In this case: one of me, two of us, etc

衾 = bedcover

槨 = crypt or burial place

The poem is very romantic, and expresses her deep emotions.
The last line is not really the central point.

If you are concerned, why not change it to something like:
for evermore!

Ming

[Aolung]

Congratulation!

I thought of something from the Book of Songs where I remember an expression "jie lao" (grow old together) etc. (Sorry, don't have the time to search for the song).

Yet, reading the above poem, I find it reads pretty fine with its rhymes:
duo - huo - wo - he - wo - wo - guo
and its parallelism. Giving it an other last line, this would be destroyed.

_guo3_ BTW is given with "outer coffin"

Aolung