I searched the internet for some Chinese poems that give some double meaning. I found this one. Since it is a love poem, I chose it, for it can come in handy with my girlfriend.


相见时难别亦难，
东风无力百花残。
春蚕到死丝方尽，
蜡炬成灰泪始干。
晓镜但愁云鬓改，
夜吟应觉月光寒。
蓬莱此去无多路，
青鸟殷勤为探看。

This is the 2 translations I found:


"(1)
It is hard to meet, but hard to part too, the east wind languid, hundreds of flowers wasted.
A spring silkworm may not stop spinning silk until death.
A candle's tears dry only when it is burned down to ashes.
In the morning's bronze mirror, you worry about the change in your hair, and you feels the moonlight cold, reading alone in the night.
Mount Penglai, so celebrated in fairy tales, cannot be located far away.
O Bluebird, please go there kindly, and take a look for me.


(2)
So hard to get together, harder yet to part.
Deprived of East wind vigor, flowers lose their heart.
In Spring the silk worms perish, spinning to the moment of death.
Candle flame turns to ashes, waxen tears no longer flow.
Dreading each morning's reflection will betray a trace of age.
Hymning verses in the night, she too must feel the cold moon light.
The fabled isle of bliss lies not so far from here.
Kind blue bird, bring me word of him. "

There seems to be some double entendre. Could someone, with more advance Mandarin than me, explain some of the wordplay?

A lot of explanation of this poem can be found on the web. For example:
http://gb.cri.cn/3601/2004/09/08/109@293487.htm
http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/5477060
http://wenwen.soso.com/z/q116771075.htm

Thanks,

My problem is however that all the explanations including those are in Chinese.

I suppose I'll have to Skritter for another couple of months before I can tackle this project.

I feel like poetry and comedy are the last frontiers of understanding in a foreign language, because they rely so heavily on associations and cultural resonances that might not be accessible to foreigners, or even to natives who come from a different cultural context. (Consider how much humor changes from generation to generation in your own native language, for example.)

James

OK, the following is a brief summary of what I’ve gathered from the web about this poem.

The background: the poem is about a female longing for her man who has gone afar.

相见时难别亦难
It was difficult that we have met but the separation is also unbearable.
Note: the first 难 means “not easy” but the second 难 means “unbearable”

东风无力百花残
Since the east wind is languid, all the flowers withered.
Here, 百花 is a metaphor of the protagonist herself and 东风 refers to the man. She needs the care of the man, and without which, she is withering.

春蚕到死丝方尽
A silkworm will not stop spinning silk until death
Here 丝 is a pun for the word 思 (longing).
Like a silkworm which will continuously spin silk until death, her longing will not stop until she dies.

蜡炬成灰泪始干
A candle will not stop guttering until all turned into ashes.
蜡炬 - candle
泪 refers to the gutterings of a candle – a candle’s tear
始干 - start to dry up
So this is saying that tears will not stop guttering down her face until she is completely consumed by the longing.

晓镜但愁云鬓改
Dreading each morning's reflection will betray a trace of age.
晓 - morning
镜 is used as verb here (look in a mirror).
云鬓 - lady's beautiful hair
改 – turned white

夜吟应觉月光寒
Hymning verses in the night, he too must feel the cold moon light.
So he must also be feeling lonely too.

蓬莱此去无多路
Mount Penglai cannot be located far away.
蓬莱 – a fabled abode of immortals – stands for the place where the man has gone to.

青鸟殷勤为探看
O Bluebird, please go there kindly, and take a look for me.
青鸟 is a messenger in the fables.

Thank you so much pts! When I posted this originally I thought you were the one that would help me with this and you did not let me down! :D

I agree with you James. For me, poetry, literature and comedy unique to the language are not only the core but the most fun part of a language. I studied my first Spanish poem after 2 weeks of Spanish. With Chinese I postponed it. every time I looked at a poem, I got discouraged. Decided I need some encouragement and tackle a poem for good.

@aharlekyn I also had a very pleasant experience learning Spanish with poems (it helped that I had a great Spanish teacher who is a poet and expert on Spanish literature... San Juan de la Cruz, Garcilaso, Calderón, Lope de Vega, Lorca, ... I forget, but there was so much good stuff).

Chinese poems may be more challenging than Spanish ones. Still, in slight disagreement with @jww1066, I think learning Chinese poems early may be very worthwhile, and in some cases can serve as a "first frontier". Even if you don't understand them, or only understand them 10%, I'd argue that learning a poem can be one of the best learning investments, because, like with a good poem in any language, your understanding of it will grow with time.

Example of a famous poem I am currently learning, in a question about whether adding sentences to Skritter is ok:
http://www.skritter.com/forum/topic?id=97609479#97762522

PS: Chinese songs can be also be "handy" and way simpler to understand. Example:
http://www.chinese-tools.com/songs/song/178/aiwohaishita.html
I'm looking for a good collection of songs to learn. The Chinese-Tools.com collection is a start, but most of the songs are no longer online.

@Kai Don't get me wrong, if someone is into poetry by all means they should study it. I'm a big believer in studying whatever the student finds interesting.

@jww ok, sorry, didn't mean to suggest you were anti-poetry ;-)