你如何看待中国诗歌？
What do you think of Chinese poetry?
译文简介
中国诗歌让我明白，做自己并无不妥——用隐喻、意象和象征来看待这个世界，也没有任何问题。
正文翻译
J. Liang Former Student
Chinese poetry taught me that it was okay to be myself—that there was nothing wrong with seeing the world in metaphors, images, and symbols.
It taught me that it was okay to be autistic—that rather than being punished for violating social rules and cues I did not know, they could be learned and mastered as a form of emotional expression.
It taught me that my cultural heritage was not a yardstick against which my individual worth was measured, but a deeply personal tool that could be used to sharpen my understanding of my own emotions.
中国诗歌让我明白，做自己并无不妥——用隐喻、意象和象征来看待这个世界，也没有任何问题。
它还让我知道，患有自闭症也没关系——我不必因为违背了自己不懂的社交规则和暗示而受到惩罚，相反，这些规则和暗示可以作为一种情感表达的方式被学习和掌握。
它更让我领悟到，文化遗产并非衡量个人价值的标尺，而是一种极具个人色彩的工具，能帮助我更深刻地理解自身的情感。
When it seemed impossible to feel anything but rage, bitterness, hopelessness or grief, the Tang and Song dynasty poets took that storm and dissolved it into crystallized gentleness.
I often found it strange that a form of literature so strongly tied with the elite literati of imperial China could be so ruthlessly personal and vulnerable.
当我心中只剩下愤怒、苦涩、绝望或悲伤，仿佛再也无法感受到其他情绪时，唐宋诗人却能将这股情绪的风暴，化解为晶莹剔透的温柔。
我常常觉得不可思议：一种与中国封建王朝士大夫阶层紧密相连的文学形式，竟然能如此直白地展现个人情感，如此坦诚地流露脆弱。
In Chinese we have a term, 含蓄，which translates to “implicit, veiled; reserved and reticent.” Many Chinese people I’ve talked with agree that this accurately describes the difference in communication style between Chinese and English-speaking cultures. Where English speakers are more direct, Chinese would prefer to layer their meanings with metaphors and symbolism. Stylistically, I’ve found this to be an accurate difference between classic English and Chinese literature.
In spirit, though, I haven’t found this to be so. I find it much easier to feel vulnerable with Chinese poets, where I feel a gentle emotional truth is communicated much more easily without shame. There is a much stronger understanding of the value that good friends have to offer, and the spiritual price of loneliness.
中文里有个词叫“含蓄”，翻译成英文是“implicit, veiled; reserved and reticent”（含蓄的、隐晦的；内敛的、寡言的）。我交谈过的很多中国人都认为，这个词精准地概括了中英文化在沟通方式上的差异：英语使用者更直接，而中国人则倾向于用隐喻和象征来层层传递含义。从文体上看，我发现这也是经典英、中文学作品之间的一个显著区别。
但从精神内核来看，我却不认为情况是这样。在品读中国诗人的作品时，我更容易卸下防备、流露脆弱——因为我能毫无羞愧地感受到一种温柔的情感真谛，这种真谛传递得格外自然。中国诗歌对挚友的价值、对孤独所付出的精神代价，有着更为深刻的理解。
In Su Shi’s poem 水调歌头 are the famous lines (clumsily by me) translated as:
I long to ride the wind to return (to the capital), yet I fear the cold jade palace.
The height of a tall place does not overcome the cold
我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。
苏轼的《水调歌头》中有几句名句，我尝试将其翻译成英文（译文或许略显笨拙）：
“我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。”
“我渴望乘风归去（回到京城），却又惧怕那玉砌的高楼。身居高处，终究难以抵挡严寒。”
Exiled from the capital, Su Shi feels a longing to return, but at the same time is repelled by the impersonality of imperial politics.
As a Chinese idiom, the bolded line refers to individuals who have all the status, power, and wealth in the world, but only know the cold loneliness of having no friends who are there for you and only you.
It can also refer to individuals who have reached a high level of spiritual, technical, or intellectual achievement, only to find that there are fewer and fewer equals the higher they climb.
当时苏轼被贬离京城，他既渴望回到朝堂，又对官场政治的冷漠无情感到排斥。
加粗的那句“高处不胜寒”后来成为了一个中文成语，指的是那些拥有世间所有地位、权力和财富的人，却只能体会到无人真心相伴的冰冷孤独。
它也可用来形容那些在精神、技能或学识上达到很高成就的人，却发现自己爬得越高，身边能与之匹敌的人就越少。
He does not prescribe as a solution, does not dictate how to feel, does not hide his turmoil.
He does not tell you that the loneliness will get better or get worse. He does not blame anyone for the source of that loneliness. He does not allow the loneliness to overwhelm him, nor does he deny its existence.
He simply describes it, and invites you to sit with him.
苏轼没有提出解决办法，没有规定人们该如何感受，也没有掩饰自己内心的纷乱。
他没有说孤独会变好还是变坏，没有因孤独的根源而责怪任何人，既没有让孤独将自己吞噬，也没有否认孤独的存在。
他只是如实描绘这份孤独，并邀请你与他一同感受。
And when you accept things as they are, it creates room to see new possibilities (as readers familiar with the poem know).
I believe this is an incredibly healthy way to process emotions, which is a striking characteristic of the Tang and Song poets. And for that gift, I owe Chinese poetry an eternal debt of gratitude.
而当你坦然接受事物的本来面貌时，就会有机会看到新的可能（熟悉这首诗的读者应该知道这一点）。
我认为这是一种极其健康的情绪处理方式，而这正是唐宋诗人作品的一个显著特点。这份馈赠，让我对中国诗歌永远心怀感激。
Greg Pringle
Not very patriotic; I find most nationalism revolting
I approached Chinese poetry through English translation. Translated into English, Chinese poetry is often very beautiful, with its strong imagery, conciseness, elegance, sense of balance, and generally “romantic” feeling. In fact, one of the channels by which Chinese poetry was introduced to English speakers was through the Imagist poets.
我不算爱国，而且觉得大多数民族主义都令人反感。
我最初是通过英译本接触中国诗歌的。中国诗歌译成英文后，往往十分优美——它意象鲜明、语言凝练、风格典雅、富有韵律感，还带着一种整体的“浪漫”氛围。事实上，意象派诗人是将中国诗歌介绍给英语读者的重要媒介之一。
Much, much later, I came to realise that this superficial way of viewing Chinese poetry was quite mistaken and missed much of what was going on. My later (still incomplete) understanding of ancient Chinese poetry is that it was largely the property of scholar bureaucrats and reflected their particular concerns. It must thus be understood that way.
A good way for the interested reader to understand this is to read this paper by Xuelai Qiu: TRANSLATING CLASSICAL Chinese POETRY INTO ENGLISH: CHALLENGES AND A POSSIBLE SOLUTION—A CASE STUDY OF TRANSLATING LI PO’S “GRIEVANCE ON JADED STEPS”. The paper analyses Ezra Pound’s translation of a Li Po (Li Bai) poem entitled Jewel Stairs’ Grievance:
（TRANSLATING CLASSICAL Chinese POETRY INTO ENGLISH: CHALLENGES AND A POSSIBLE SOLUTION—A CASE STUDY OF TRANSLATING LI PO’S “GRIEVANCE ON JADED STEPS”）。
很久很久以后，我才意识到，这种表面化的解读方式是大错特错的，它遗漏了诗歌背后许多深层内涵。后来我对中国古诗有了一些理解（尽管还不够全面）：中国古诗在很大程度上是士大夫阶层的专属文学形式，反映的是他们特定的心境与关切，因此也必须从这个角度去理解。
对感兴趣的读者来说，要理解这一点，一个好方法是阅读邱雪莱（Xuelai Qiu）的一篇论文：《中国古典诗歌英译：挑战与可能的解决方法——以李白〈玉阶怨〉英译为例》
这篇论文分析了埃兹拉·庞德（Ezra Pound）对李白诗作《玉阶怨》的英译版本：
The jeweled steps are already quite white with dew
It is so late that the dew soaks my gauze stocking,
And I let down the crystal curtain
And watch the moon through the clear autumn.
“玉阶生白露，夜久侵罗袜。
却下水晶帘，玲珑望秋月。”
A beautiful poem, no? The words of a beautiful court lady complaining that her lover has let her down…
Well, that’s not what the poem’s about. To quote the author of the paper:
By depicting the court lady standing on the jeweled steps longing for the Emperor, Li Po effectively conveyed his inner lament of being abandoned by the Emperor and his enduring wish to regain the Emperor’s favor.
很美的一首诗，对吧？看起来像是一位美丽的宫女在抱怨情人辜负了自己……
但实际上，这首诗的主旨并非如此。引用论文作者的观点：“李白通过描绘宫女伫立玉阶、思念君王的场景，巧妙地抒发了自己被君王冷落的内心悲叹，以及渴望重新获得君王赏识的持久心愿。”
Without knowing what it actually meant to Chinese scholar-officials, it’s impossible to understand this poetry at all.
Another example that might bring this home more clearly is poetry written by a Chinese poet, Xu Jun (徐骏), during the Qing dynasty.
Xu Jun said at a parting with a friend:
如果不了解这些诗歌对中国士大夫阶层真正意味着什么，就根本无法理解其深层含义。
另一个更能说明问题的例子，是清代诗人徐骏（Xu Jun）的诗作。
明月有情还顾我，清风无意不留人
“If the bright moon has feelings it will look after me; if the cool breeze has no intentions it will not keep people.”
This couplet was understood by the Emperor as expressing allegiance to the previous Ming dynasty (明 míng = bright) rather than the current Qing dynasty (清 qīng = clear, cool).
At another time the poet wrote:
“Why is the cool breeze ruffling the book when it cannot read?”
While this is a beautiful poetic image, it helped lead to the poet’s execution. It was saying that the Manchu conquerors (the ‘cool breeze’, that is, the Qing) were illiterate.
徐骏在与友人分别时曾写下诗句：“明月有情还顾我，清风无意不留人”，英译为“如果明月有情，定会眷顾我；如果清风无意，便不会留人”。
但这句诗在皇帝看来，却是在表达对前明王朝（“明”意为“光明”）的效忠，而非对当时的清朝（“清”意为“清澈、清凉”）的归顺。
清风不识字，何故乱翻书
后来，徐骏又写下“清风不识字，何故乱翻书”，英译为“清风不识字，为何要乱翻书？”
尽管这是一个极具美感的诗意意象，却最终导致徐骏被处决。因为这句诗被解读为暗指满族统治者（即“清风”所代表的清朝）目不识丁。
Having read a certain amount of gushing praise of Chinese poetry in Chinese, I have come to the view that many modern Chinese don’t really understand their own ancient poetry, either. It appears that in the early 20th century Chinese critics decided to jettison the old Confucian ways of reading Chinese poetry and adopt the new Western practice of looking at the superficial beauty of language and image. While many Chinese now appreciate Chinese poetry for the conciseness and elegance of Classical Chinese and the romantic beauty of its poetic images, they do not necessarily understand what it really means.
我读过不少中文里对中国诗歌的溢美之词，但由此得出一个观点：许多现代中国人其实也并未真正理解自己的古代诗歌。似乎在20世纪初，中国的评论家们决定摒弃传统儒家解读中国诗歌的方式，转而采用西方的新方法——只关注语言和意象的表面美感。如今，很多中国人欣赏中国诗歌，是因为文言文的凝练典雅和诗歌意象的浪漫优美，却未必能理解其真正的内涵。
Su Nanpo B.A from xi'an International Studies University (Graduated 2015)
As a great Chinese poetry fun, I’d like to say that:
Most of the ancient Chinese poems are just amazing, but not that available for the poor Chiese learners to understand, even for some Chinese people.
The words of the ancient poems were always strictly designed to meet with the highly patterned structure and rhythm, and the structre of each two sentances are similar word bu word at the same time.
作为一名中国诗歌的忠实爱好者，我想说：大多数中国古诗都极具魅力，但对中文水平不高的学习者来说，理解起来并不容易，即便对一些中国人也是如此。
古诗的用词往往经过严格推敲，以符合高度规整的结构和韵律，而且每两句诗的结构往往逐字对应，十分对称。
Luckily, the structure of Chinese is more flexible compared to English, and every ancient poet was like Shakespeare，able to creat his own piece of words with highly refined characters, which added up the elegance of Chinese.
let’s look at some simple examples, in ancient Chinese:
“no”can be :不， 莫， 未 ，夫 ，非, and so on(since my major is not ancient Chinese)
幸运的是，中文的结构比英文更灵活，每位古代诗人都像莎士比亚一样，能用高度凝练的文字创作出独特的作品，这更增添了中文的典雅韵味。
我们来看几个简单的例子：在文言文中，表示“不”的意思可以用“不”“莫”“未”“夫”“非”等多个字（由于我的专业不是古汉语，了解得也不够全面）。
the character ”道(dao which you always pronounce as Tao)” has the folloing meanings:
noun: the road, the avenue, the way, the truth, the wisdom, the good deeds, the supreme laws of nature, the Taoism, the art…
verb: to say, make ones way through/to construct the roads , to obey the rules of sth …
adv: according to, along the road, on the road…
adj: relative to Taoism…
and so on.
“道”字（发音常为“Tao”）的含义十分丰富：
作名词时，可表示“道路”“方法”“真理”“智慧”“善行”“自然规律”“道教”“技艺”等；
作动词时，可表示“说”“通行”“修筑道路”“遵循（某事的规则）”等；
作副词时，可表示“按照”“沿着道路”“在途中”等；
作形容词时，可表示“与道教相关的”等；
含义还有很多。
That means each group of meaning can be expressed with up to hundreds of combinations with merely two characters!
Some simple words can cover the meaning of a sentence, even a story .
If you can not tell the specific meaning of the charater adopted in the ancient poems, it will not be easy to understand the refined beauty from millions of possibilities.
这意味着，每一类含义都能通过仅两个字的组合，衍生出上百种表达方式！
有些简单的字词，甚至能涵盖一个句子、乃至一个故事的含义。
如果无法分辨古诗中所用字词的特定含义，就很难从众多可能的解读中体会到古诗的精妙之美。
If you want to understand the beauty of ancient Chinese poems, you can start by learning 成语(cheng, yu) the Chinese set prases, their structers can help to foster an understanding of ancient poems(for some of them are from the ancient poems).
For example:( 瓜熟蒂落gua shu di luo ，水到渠成 shui dao qu cheng )
(瓜熟蒂落，瓜the melon, 熟 mature,used as a verb here,蒂the stem, 落fall off or seperate from . It was clearly an expression from the ancient wisdom on farmland)
(水到渠成，水the water, the river,到 to arrive,渠the channel, the water way, 成 to finish，here it means “be finished”. That was from the experience of irrigation or flood-dealing. )
(When the melons get mature the stems disjoint. When the rivers arrive the channels have already been finished on time. In both of the two cases, time and efforts are essential, so they are always written together to express the meaning of working hard and wait for “the day”, in order to educate youth to be perseverant)
比如“瓜熟蒂落”（guā shú dì luò）和“水到渠成”（shuǐ dào qú chéng）：
如果想理解中国古诗的美，可以从学习“成语”（chéng yǔ，即中文固定短语）入手。成语的结构有助于培养对古诗的理解能力，因为有些成语本身就源自古诗。
“瓜熟蒂落”中，“瓜”指瓜果，“熟”是“成熟”的意思（此处作动词），“蒂”指瓜蒂，“落”指“脱落、分离”。这个成语显然源自古人在农耕方面的智慧；
“水到渠成”中，“水”指水、河流，“到”是“到达”，“渠”指沟渠、水道，“成”是“完成”（此处指“自然形成、就绪”）。这个成语源自古人灌溉或治水的经验；
“瓜熟蒂落”指瓜成熟后，瓜蒂自然脱落；“水到渠成”指水流到之处，沟渠自然形成。这两个成语所描述的情况，都离不开时间和努力的积累，因此人们常将它们连用，表达“努力耕耘、静待时机”的含义，用来劝诫年轻人要持之以恒。
And the structure is clear here as :
noun.+verb.+noun.+verb.(verb can be active and passive)
Hope you can enjoy reading ancient Chinese poems one day.
而且这两个成语的结构很清晰，都是“名词+动词+名词+动词”的形式（动词可以是主动语态，也可以是被动语态）。
希望有一天你也能享受阅读中国古诗的乐趣。
By the way ,Chinese modern poems are more easy to understand, I strongly recommend顾城(GuCheng) and 海子(Haizi)，my favorite two modern poets.
Finally, happy reading some Chinese !
另外，中国的现代诗更容易理解，我强烈推荐顾城（Gu Cheng）和海子（Haizi）——他们是我最喜欢的两位现代诗人。
最后，祝你享受中文阅读的乐趣！
Chinese poetry taught me that it was okay to be myself—that there was nothing wrong with seeing the world in metaphors, images, and symbols.
It taught me that it was okay to be autistic—that rather than being punished for violating social rules and cues I did not know, they could be learned and mastered as a form of emotional expression.
It taught me that my cultural heritage was not a yardstick against which my individual worth was measured, but a deeply personal tool that could be used to sharpen my understanding of my own emotions.
中国诗歌让我明白，做自己并无不妥——用隐喻、意象和象征来看待这个世界，也没有任何问题。
它还让我知道，患有自闭症也没关系——我不必因为违背了自己不懂的社交规则和暗示而受到惩罚，相反，这些规则和暗示可以作为一种情感表达的方式被学习和掌握。
它更让我领悟到，文化遗产并非衡量个人价值的标尺，而是一种极具个人色彩的工具，能帮助我更深刻地理解自身的情感。
When it seemed impossible to feel anything but rage, bitterness, hopelessness or grief, the Tang and Song dynasty poets took that storm and dissolved it into crystallized gentleness.
I often found it strange that a form of literature so strongly tied with the elite literati of imperial China could be so ruthlessly personal and vulnerable.
当我心中只剩下愤怒、苦涩、绝望或悲伤，仿佛再也无法感受到其他情绪时，唐宋诗人却能将这股情绪的风暴，化解为晶莹剔透的温柔。
我常常觉得不可思议：一种与中国封建王朝士大夫阶层紧密相连的文学形式，竟然能如此直白地展现个人情感，如此坦诚地流露脆弱。
In Chinese we have a term, 含蓄，which translates to “implicit, veiled; reserved and reticent.” Many Chinese people I’ve talked with agree that this accurately describes the difference in communication style between Chinese and English-speaking cultures. Where English speakers are more direct, Chinese would prefer to layer their meanings with metaphors and symbolism. Stylistically, I’ve found this to be an accurate difference between classic English and Chinese literature.
In spirit, though, I haven’t found this to be so. I find it much easier to feel vulnerable with Chinese poets, where I feel a gentle emotional truth is communicated much more easily without shame. There is a much stronger understanding of the value that good friends have to offer, and the spiritual price of loneliness.
中文里有个词叫“含蓄”，翻译成英文是“implicit, veiled; reserved and reticent”（含蓄的、隐晦的；内敛的、寡言的）。我交谈过的很多中国人都认为，这个词精准地概括了中英文化在沟通方式上的差异：英语使用者更直接，而中国人则倾向于用隐喻和象征来层层传递含义。从文体上看，我发现这也是经典英、中文学作品之间的一个显著区别。
但从精神内核来看，我却不认为情况是这样。在品读中国诗人的作品时，我更容易卸下防备、流露脆弱——因为我能毫无羞愧地感受到一种温柔的情感真谛，这种真谛传递得格外自然。中国诗歌对挚友的价值、对孤独所付出的精神代价，有着更为深刻的理解。
In Su Shi’s poem 水调歌头 are the famous lines (clumsily by me) translated as:
I long to ride the wind to return (to the capital), yet I fear the cold jade palace.
The height of a tall place does not overcome the cold
我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。
苏轼的《水调歌头》中有几句名句，我尝试将其翻译成英文（译文或许略显笨拙）：
“我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒。”
“我渴望乘风归去（回到京城），却又惧怕那玉砌的高楼。身居高处，终究难以抵挡严寒。”
Exiled from the capital, Su Shi feels a longing to return, but at the same time is repelled by the impersonality of imperial politics.
As a Chinese idiom, the bolded line refers to individuals who have all the status, power, and wealth in the world, but only know the cold loneliness of having no friends who are there for you and only you.
It can also refer to individuals who have reached a high level of spiritual, technical, or intellectual achievement, only to find that there are fewer and fewer equals the higher they climb.
当时苏轼被贬离京城，他既渴望回到朝堂，又对官场政治的冷漠无情感到排斥。
加粗的那句“高处不胜寒”后来成为了一个中文成语，指的是那些拥有世间所有地位、权力和财富的人，却只能体会到无人真心相伴的冰冷孤独。
它也可用来形容那些在精神、技能或学识上达到很高成就的人，却发现自己爬得越高，身边能与之匹敌的人就越少。
He does not prescribe as a solution, does not dictate how to feel, does not hide his turmoil.
He does not tell you that the loneliness will get better or get worse. He does not blame anyone for the source of that loneliness. He does not allow the loneliness to overwhelm him, nor does he deny its existence.
He simply describes it, and invites you to sit with him.
苏轼没有提出解决办法，没有规定人们该如何感受，也没有掩饰自己内心的纷乱。
他没有说孤独会变好还是变坏，没有因孤独的根源而责怪任何人，既没有让孤独将自己吞噬，也没有否认孤独的存在。
他只是如实描绘这份孤独，并邀请你与他一同感受。
And when you accept things as they are, it creates room to see new possibilities (as readers familiar with the poem know).
I believe this is an incredibly healthy way to process emotions, which is a striking characteristic of the Tang and Song poets. And for that gift, I owe Chinese poetry an eternal debt of gratitude.
而当你坦然接受事物的本来面貌时，就会有机会看到新的可能（熟悉这首诗的读者应该知道这一点）。
我认为这是一种极其健康的情绪处理方式，而这正是唐宋诗人作品的一个显著特点。这份馈赠，让我对中国诗歌永远心怀感激。
Greg Pringle
Not very patriotic; I find most nationalism revolting
I approached Chinese poetry through English translation. Translated into English, Chinese poetry is often very beautiful, with its strong imagery, conciseness, elegance, sense of balance, and generally “romantic” feeling. In fact, one of the channels by which Chinese poetry was introduced to English speakers was through the Imagist poets.
我不算爱国，而且觉得大多数民族主义都令人反感。
我最初是通过英译本接触中国诗歌的。中国诗歌译成英文后，往往十分优美——它意象鲜明、语言凝练、风格典雅、富有韵律感，还带着一种整体的“浪漫”氛围。事实上，意象派诗人是将中国诗歌介绍给英语读者的重要媒介之一。
Much, much later, I came to realise that this superficial way of viewing Chinese poetry was quite mistaken and missed much of what was going on. My later (still incomplete) understanding of ancient Chinese poetry is that it was largely the property of scholar bureaucrats and reflected their particular concerns. It must thus be understood that way.
A good way for the interested reader to understand this is to read this paper by Xuelai Qiu: TRANSLATING CLASSICAL Chinese POETRY INTO ENGLISH: CHALLENGES AND A POSSIBLE SOLUTION—A CASE STUDY OF TRANSLATING LI PO’S “GRIEVANCE ON JADED STEPS”. The paper analyses Ezra Pound’s translation of a Li Po (Li Bai) poem entitled Jewel Stairs’ Grievance:
（TRANSLATING CLASSICAL Chinese POETRY INTO ENGLISH: CHALLENGES AND A POSSIBLE SOLUTION—A CASE STUDY OF TRANSLATING LI PO’S “GRIEVANCE ON JADED STEPS”）。
很久很久以后，我才意识到，这种表面化的解读方式是大错特错的，它遗漏了诗歌背后许多深层内涵。后来我对中国古诗有了一些理解（尽管还不够全面）：中国古诗在很大程度上是士大夫阶层的专属文学形式，反映的是他们特定的心境与关切，因此也必须从这个角度去理解。
对感兴趣的读者来说，要理解这一点，一个好方法是阅读邱雪莱（Xuelai Qiu）的一篇论文：《中国古典诗歌英译：挑战与可能的解决方法——以李白〈玉阶怨〉英译为例》
这篇论文分析了埃兹拉·庞德（Ezra Pound）对李白诗作《玉阶怨》的英译版本：
The jeweled steps are already quite white with dew
It is so late that the dew soaks my gauze stocking,
And I let down the crystal curtain
And watch the moon through the clear autumn.
“玉阶生白露，夜久侵罗袜。
却下水晶帘，玲珑望秋月。”
A beautiful poem, no? The words of a beautiful court lady complaining that her lover has let her down…
Well, that’s not what the poem’s about. To quote the author of the paper:
By depicting the court lady standing on the jeweled steps longing for the Emperor, Li Po effectively conveyed his inner lament of being abandoned by the Emperor and his enduring wish to regain the Emperor’s favor.
很美的一首诗，对吧？看起来像是一位美丽的宫女在抱怨情人辜负了自己……
但实际上，这首诗的主旨并非如此。引用论文作者的观点：“李白通过描绘宫女伫立玉阶、思念君王的场景，巧妙地抒发了自己被君王冷落的内心悲叹，以及渴望重新获得君王赏识的持久心愿。”
Without knowing what it actually meant to Chinese scholar-officials, it’s impossible to understand this poetry at all.
Another example that might bring this home more clearly is poetry written by a Chinese poet, Xu Jun (徐骏), during the Qing dynasty.
Xu Jun said at a parting with a friend:
如果不了解这些诗歌对中国士大夫阶层真正意味着什么，就根本无法理解其深层含义。
另一个更能说明问题的例子，是清代诗人徐骏（Xu Jun）的诗作。
明月有情还顾我，清风无意不留人
“If the bright moon has feelings it will look after me; if the cool breeze has no intentions it will not keep people.”
This couplet was understood by the Emperor as expressing allegiance to the previous Ming dynasty (明 míng = bright) rather than the current Qing dynasty (清 qīng = clear, cool).
At another time the poet wrote:
“Why is the cool breeze ruffling the book when it cannot read?”
While this is a beautiful poetic image, it helped lead to the poet’s execution. It was saying that the Manchu conquerors (the ‘cool breeze’, that is, the Qing) were illiterate.
徐骏在与友人分别时曾写下诗句：“明月有情还顾我，清风无意不留人”，英译为“如果明月有情，定会眷顾我；如果清风无意，便不会留人”。
但这句诗在皇帝看来，却是在表达对前明王朝（“明”意为“光明”）的效忠，而非对当时的清朝（“清”意为“清澈、清凉”）的归顺。
清风不识字，何故乱翻书
后来，徐骏又写下“清风不识字，何故乱翻书”，英译为“清风不识字，为何要乱翻书？”
尽管这是一个极具美感的诗意意象，却最终导致徐骏被处决。因为这句诗被解读为暗指满族统治者（即“清风”所代表的清朝）目不识丁。
Having read a certain amount of gushing praise of Chinese poetry in Chinese, I have come to the view that many modern Chinese don’t really understand their own ancient poetry, either. It appears that in the early 20th century Chinese critics decided to jettison the old Confucian ways of reading Chinese poetry and adopt the new Western practice of looking at the superficial beauty of language and image. While many Chinese now appreciate Chinese poetry for the conciseness and elegance of Classical Chinese and the romantic beauty of its poetic images, they do not necessarily understand what it really means.
我读过不少中文里对中国诗歌的溢美之词，但由此得出一个观点：许多现代中国人其实也并未真正理解自己的古代诗歌。似乎在20世纪初，中国的评论家们决定摒弃传统儒家解读中国诗歌的方式，转而采用西方的新方法——只关注语言和意象的表面美感。如今，很多中国人欣赏中国诗歌，是因为文言文的凝练典雅和诗歌意象的浪漫优美，却未必能理解其真正的内涵。
Su Nanpo B.A from xi'an International Studies University (Graduated 2015)
As a great Chinese poetry fun, I’d like to say that:
Most of the ancient Chinese poems are just amazing, but not that available for the poor Chiese learners to understand, even for some Chinese people.
The words of the ancient poems were always strictly designed to meet with the highly patterned structure and rhythm, and the structre of each two sentances are similar word bu word at the same time.
作为一名中国诗歌的忠实爱好者，我想说：大多数中国古诗都极具魅力，但对中文水平不高的学习者来说，理解起来并不容易，即便对一些中国人也是如此。
古诗的用词往往经过严格推敲，以符合高度规整的结构和韵律，而且每两句诗的结构往往逐字对应，十分对称。
Luckily, the structure of Chinese is more flexible compared to English, and every ancient poet was like Shakespeare，able to creat his own piece of words with highly refined characters, which added up the elegance of Chinese.
let’s look at some simple examples, in ancient Chinese:
“no”can be :不， 莫， 未 ，夫 ，非, and so on(since my major is not ancient Chinese)
幸运的是，中文的结构比英文更灵活，每位古代诗人都像莎士比亚一样，能用高度凝练的文字创作出独特的作品，这更增添了中文的典雅韵味。
我们来看几个简单的例子：在文言文中，表示“不”的意思可以用“不”“莫”“未”“夫”“非”等多个字（由于我的专业不是古汉语，了解得也不够全面）。
the character ”道(dao which you always pronounce as Tao)” has the folloing meanings:
noun: the road, the avenue, the way, the truth, the wisdom, the good deeds, the supreme laws of nature, the Taoism, the art…
verb: to say, make ones way through/to construct the roads , to obey the rules of sth …
adv: according to, along the road, on the road…
adj: relative to Taoism…
and so on.
“道”字（发音常为“Tao”）的含义十分丰富：
作名词时，可表示“道路”“方法”“真理”“智慧”“善行”“自然规律”“道教”“技艺”等；
作动词时，可表示“说”“通行”“修筑道路”“遵循（某事的规则）”等；
作副词时，可表示“按照”“沿着道路”“在途中”等；
作形容词时，可表示“与道教相关的”等；
含义还有很多。
That means each group of meaning can be expressed with up to hundreds of combinations with merely two characters!
Some simple words can cover the meaning of a sentence, even a story .
If you can not tell the specific meaning of the charater adopted in the ancient poems, it will not be easy to understand the refined beauty from millions of possibilities.
这意味着，每一类含义都能通过仅两个字的组合，衍生出上百种表达方式！
有些简单的字词，甚至能涵盖一个句子、乃至一个故事的含义。
如果无法分辨古诗中所用字词的特定含义，就很难从众多可能的解读中体会到古诗的精妙之美。
If you want to understand the beauty of ancient Chinese poems, you can start by learning 成语(cheng, yu) the Chinese set prases, their structers can help to foster an understanding of ancient poems(for some of them are from the ancient poems).
For example:( 瓜熟蒂落gua shu di luo ，水到渠成 shui dao qu cheng )
(瓜熟蒂落，瓜the melon, 熟 mature,used as a verb here,蒂the stem, 落fall off or seperate from . It was clearly an expression from the ancient wisdom on farmland)
(水到渠成，水the water, the river,到 to arrive,渠the channel, the water way, 成 to finish，here it means “be finished”. That was from the experience of irrigation or flood-dealing. )
(When the melons get mature the stems disjoint. When the rivers arrive the channels have already been finished on time. In both of the two cases, time and efforts are essential, so they are always written together to express the meaning of working hard and wait for “the day”, in order to educate youth to be perseverant)
比如“瓜熟蒂落”（guā shú dì luò）和“水到渠成”（shuǐ dào qú chéng）：
如果想理解中国古诗的美，可以从学习“成语”（chéng yǔ，即中文固定短语）入手。成语的结构有助于培养对古诗的理解能力，因为有些成语本身就源自古诗。
“瓜熟蒂落”中，“瓜”指瓜果，“熟”是“成熟”的意思（此处作动词），“蒂”指瓜蒂，“落”指“脱落、分离”。这个成语显然源自古人在农耕方面的智慧；
“水到渠成”中，“水”指水、河流，“到”是“到达”，“渠”指沟渠、水道，“成”是“完成”（此处指“自然形成、就绪”）。这个成语源自古人灌溉或治水的经验；
“瓜熟蒂落”指瓜成熟后，瓜蒂自然脱落；“水到渠成”指水流到之处，沟渠自然形成。这两个成语所描述的情况，都离不开时间和努力的积累，因此人们常将它们连用，表达“努力耕耘、静待时机”的含义，用来劝诫年轻人要持之以恒。
And the structure is clear here as :
noun.+verb.+noun.+verb.(verb can be active and passive)
Hope you can enjoy reading ancient Chinese poems one day.
而且这两个成语的结构很清晰，都是“名词+动词+名词+动词”的形式（动词可以是主动语态，也可以是被动语态）。
希望有一天你也能享受阅读中国古诗的乐趣。
By the way ,Chinese modern poems are more easy to understand, I strongly recommend顾城(GuCheng) and 海子(Haizi)，my favorite two modern poets.
Finally, happy reading some Chinese !
另外，中国的现代诗更容易理解，我强烈推荐顾城（Gu Cheng）和海子（Haizi）——他们是我最喜欢的两位现代诗人。
最后，祝你享受中文阅读的乐趣！
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