Demonic_Duck Posted February 2, 2014 at 11:54 AM Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 at 11:54 AM Full text of the poem available here: http://www.ccview.net/htm/xiandai/xzm/xzm001.htm (and many other places online). I love the poem, as Cambridge is one of my favourite places in the world, but I'm having trouble with a couple of things: Line 10 "油油的在水底招摇" - the "的" here seems to me like it should be "地", yet every copy of the poem I've seen has it as "的". Why is this? Am I parsing it wrong? Line 18 "向青草更青处漫溯" - should the character "溯" be read "sù" or "shuò"? Is one of the readings seen as more poetic, formal, archaic, colloquial or simply incorrect? I've heard both variations in the various readings available on youku, youtube etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooironic Posted February 2, 2014 at 12:12 PM Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 at 12:12 PM I translated this poem on my blog a few years back, take a look. Re Line 10: AFAIK, the differentiation of 的, 得 and 地 is a relatively modern "rule" in Chinese; they used to be used interchangeably, and indeed nowadays still many native speakers use them "incorrectly". Re Line 18: According to both 現代漢語規範詞典 (a China "standard") and 國語辭典 (a Taiwan "standard"), 溯 should be read sù and not shuò, however some native speakers may not be aware of this. This would be an example of a variant pronunciation, a topic I've also covered on my blog. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demonic_Duck Posted February 2, 2014 at 12:25 PM Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 at 12:25 PM Thanks, very helpful reply! I did have a vague recollection of 的/得/地 being a modern invention, but then again 徐志摩 is a fairly modern writer, so I wasn't too sure about whether that explanation would apply here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooironic Posted February 2, 2014 at 12:31 PM Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 at 12:31 PM No worries. It's also one of my favourite modern Chinese poems. Considering he was alive 1897-1931, it's no surprise that there are some stylistic differences between the way he wrote and the way Chinese is written nowadays. China itself went through more change post-Republic era than it did centuries before that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted February 2, 2014 at 12:39 PM Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 at 12:39 PM Re the "incorrectness" mentioned in #2, this post (#12) is relevant → http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/37142-little-phrase-活多的做不完/?p=278384 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meng Lelan Posted February 2, 2014 at 05:05 PM Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 at 05:05 PM Re Line 10: AFAIK, the differentiation of 的, 得 and 地 is a relatively modern "rule" in Chinese; they used to be used interchangeably, and indeed nowadays still many native speakers use them "incorrectly". The DeFrancis readers (published 1967) I have here do the same thing too, the 的 tends to be used in place of 得 and 地. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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