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Trying to learn japanese!

Started by doorknob, January 12, 2016, 09:49:41 AM

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Baruch

#30
Not native Chinese myself, but that is definitely Chinese.  The "chop marks" are the signatures of people who have owned a rare work of literature, so that would make it Classical Chinese, not Mandarin.  Structure is too paragraphed to be poetry ... so I am betting something by the Confucian school.  Most Chinese poetry comes in stanzas of 4 lines each, each line being 5 or 7 characters (syllables) long.

I think it goes like ... "In distant future, sayings from this scroll will be printed one at a time, in their millions.  Unfortunately will be too dead to collect royalties" ;-)

Perhaps "Pier 1" Dynasty ;-))
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Atheon

Quote from: Shiranu on January 14, 2016, 02:57:12 PM
While we are all here... any one want to try to translate my thrift shop trashcan? :P



Unrelated note; it has a beautiful tone to it. It could be an instrument with how well it rings.
It's a famous poem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantingji_Xu
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." - Seneca

Shiranu

"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Atheon

It describes one of the most well-known events in the history of Chinese poetry: the Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion. Essentially it was a group of poets playing a drinking game. Cups of wine were floated down a stream, and where they stopped, whichever poet was closest to it would have to down the cup and compose a poem on the spot. The poems were recorded and and compiled into a collection. The poem on your trash can is the preface to the collection.
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." - Seneca

Baruch

Atheon - are you fluent in Classical Chinese?

The Chinese say about China, that poetry is their greatest art form.  Confucian texts are prose, and the 之 character I see is usually found in prose.  So, a prose work describing a poetry session?  That was one of the more courtly activities of the literati.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Atheon

#35
Not Classical Chinese... that's HARD! In some ways it's hard because grammatically and vocab-wise it's so simple that it leaves a lot up to interpretation, and good interpretation requires a lot of background knowledge of history, culture, literature, tradition, etc. Classical Chinese is packed with metaphor and vagueness. It's very different from modern Chinese, but lots of modern people like to show off by peppering their modern writing with classical or classical-like phrases.

The character 之 (often a simple possessive, but it has many other uses) is very common in classical Chinese or classical-style phrases and idioms, both in prose and poetry, but poetry is usually so terse that they leave it out where it would otherwise be included. For the most part, in modern Chinese, its function has been replaced by çš,, (which also has its own range of uses).
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." - Seneca

doorknob


Baruch

Atheon ... I am not doing Mandarin right now ... but if I get back into it, and have questions, I know who to ask.

老朋友
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

doorknob

finally all the books I ordered came! yay! I was so excited I could barely contain myself. Now I can tackle translating things. I'm starting with the simple looking things. Like small sentences.

Wish me luck!

Baruch

#39
Quote from: doorknob on January 19, 2016, 05:36:32 PM
finally all the books I ordered came! yay! I was so excited I could barely contain myself. Now I can tackle translating things. I'm starting with the simple looking things. Like small sentences.

Wish me luck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67-bgSFJiKc

バンã,¶ã,¤
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Hakurei Reimu

"Ten thousand years"? Baruch, give doorknob some credit!  :smile2:
Warning: Don't Tease The Miko!
(she bites!)
Spinny Miko Avatar shamelessly ripped off from Iosys' Neko Miko Reimu

aitm

ixnay on the uckingfay apanesepay anguagelay...
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

SoldierofFortune

What do you do with japanese?
There is no use...

doorknob

I find japanese to be very useful in my life. Translating is one example but I also like to impress and confuse people by blurting out appropriate japanese phrases at the correct situation. You'd be surprised how many people are some what or even minutely knowledgeable about japanese. 

Learning japanese phrases is fine and sometimes on rare occasions helpful but not very useful for translating.

Baruch

Quote from: SoldierofFortune on January 20, 2016, 06:33:20 AM
What do you do with japanese?
There is no use...

You can shout ã,´ã,¸ãƒ©æ¥ã¦ã,,ます
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.