Categories
Blog Culture

Chinese Tang Poem: The House in the Bamboo


In this post, we are going to learn another Chinese tang poem by a very famous poet and politician Wang, Wei.

Wang, Wei was a very talented person. He was good at a lot of fields including music, drawing and writing etc.

By the way, if we praise a talented person who is specially good at arts, we will use a phrase like this:  诗书琴画 ( shī shū qín huà ),无所不精 ( wú suǒ bù jīng ).

诗: poetry,书: calligraphy, 琴: musical instruments, 画: painting. 无:no, none, 所: all, 不: not, 精:good.

In this poem “A House in the Bamboo” (竹里馆) ( zhú lǐ guǎn ), Wang, Wei described a beautiful and peaceful scene with just 20 characters.

竹里馆 王维

At the beginning, the poem mentioned where he was: 独坐幽篁里 ( dú zuò yōu huáng lǐ ) . 独: alone, 坐: sit, 幽篁: bamboo forest, 里:in.

What was he doing? 弹琴复长啸 ( tán qín fù cháng xiào ). 弹琴: play musical insrument, 复: accompany, 长: long, 啸: whistling.

The poet seemed to be very happy and enjoyed the alone moment. 深林人不知 ( shēn lín rén bú zhī ),明月来相照 ( míng yuè lái xiānɡ zhào )。

深: deep, 林: forest, woods,人: people, 不: not, 知: know. 明: bright, 月:moon, 来:come, 相: each other, 照: to shine.

Once you know the meaning of this poem, do you fall in love with it?

A great poem is also a beautiful picture. In this sense,  no wonder this poem is popular all the time.

Now let’s read this poem together and appreciate its beauty. Enjoy your learning.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.