[Multilingual Monday] 施氏食獅史
So today we cover a poem written in Classical Chinese, whose title is translated as "Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den" ...
《施氏食獅史》
石室詩士施氏，嗜獅，誓食十獅。
氏時時適市視獅。
十時，適十獅適市。
是時，適施氏適市。
氏視是十獅，恃矢勢，使是十獅逝世。
氏拾是十獅屍，適石室。
石室濕，氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭，氏始試食是十獅。
食時，始識是十獅屍，實十石獅屍。
試釋是事。
Why cover this poem? Because each character in this poem is pronounced shi (in various tones) in Mandarin Chinese. Though a reader could interpret the text correctly, it is nonsense when spoken, as sound in Chinese has shifted to the point where each of these is pronounced nearly identically (as seen in the pinyin version of the title, Shī Shì shí shī shǐ).
Here's a young woman trying to read the poem, to further elaborate this point:
(For fun, feed the poem into Google Translate and listen to the speech synthesis! :: laugh ::).
There is a great write-up on the poem on Wikipedia, complete with a comparison on the poem in other Chinese dialects (in Teochew the first line is read as zioh8sig4 si1se6 si1si6, si7 sai1, si7 ziah8 zab8 sai1; the theoretical pronunciation in Old Chinese of the same sentence is ɕia dʲi̪ěɡ dʲi̪ək ʂi̪ər sli̪əɡ dʲi̪ǎk ɕi̪ět ɕiəɡ dʑi̪əɡ ɕia dʲi̪ěɡ, dʲi̪ər ʂi̪ər, dʲi̪ad dʲi̪ək dʲi̪əp ʂi̪ər).
Curiously, one of the things I've noticed about Wikipedia is the multiple language pages -- Japanese and Korean, both influenced heavily by Chinese, show that the borrowing of character pronunciations was fairly late in the game, to the point where many of the syllables are similar: Japanese has しししょくしし, Shishishokushishi as the title, and Korean reads it as 시씨식사사, Shisshishiksasa. Hebrew and Russian just try to transliterate the Chinese sounds, giving amusing Wikipedia title pages of שה שה שה שה שה and Ши Ши ши ши ши, respectively. :: laugh ::
《施氏食獅史》
石室詩士施氏，嗜獅，誓食十獅。
氏時時適市視獅。
十時，適十獅適市。
是時，適施氏適市。
氏視是十獅，恃矢勢，使是十獅逝世。
氏拾是十獅屍，適石室。
石室濕，氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭，氏始試食是十獅。
食時，始識是十獅屍，實十石獅屍。
試釋是事。
Why cover this poem? Because each character in this poem is pronounced shi (in various tones) in Mandarin Chinese. Though a reader could interpret the text correctly, it is nonsense when spoken, as sound in Chinese has shifted to the point where each of these is pronounced nearly identically (as seen in the pinyin version of the title, Shī Shì shí shī shǐ).
Here's a young woman trying to read the poem, to further elaborate this point:
Click to view(For fun, feed the poem into Google Translate and listen to the speech synthesis! :: laugh ::).
There is a great write-up on the poem on Wikipedia, complete with a comparison on the poem in other Chinese dialects (in Teochew the first line is read as zioh8sig4 si1se6 si1si6, si7 sai1, si7 ziah8 zab8 sai1; the theoretical pronunciation in Old Chinese of the same sentence is ɕia dʲi̪ěɡ dʲi̪ək ʂi̪ər sli̪əɡ dʲi̪ǎk ɕi̪ět ɕiəɡ dʑi̪əɡ ɕia dʲi̪ěɡ, dʲi̪ər ʂi̪ər, dʲi̪ad dʲi̪ək dʲi̪əp ʂi̪ər).
Curiously, one of the things I've noticed about Wikipedia is the multiple language pages -- Japanese and Korean, both influenced heavily by Chinese, show that the borrowing of character pronunciations was fairly late in the game, to the point where many of the syllables are similar: Japanese has しししょくしし, Shishishokushishi as the title, and Korean reads it as 시씨식사사, Shisshishiksasa. Hebrew and Russian just try to transliterate the Chinese sounds, giving amusing Wikipedia title pages of שה שה שה שה שה and Ши Ши ши ши ши, respectively. :: laugh ::