A Chant to Snow Flakes
- Poetry of Zheng Xie

《咏雪》

- Last updated: 2024-04-07 14:24:00

中文原文

一片两片三四片，五六七八九十片。

千片万片无数片，飞入梅花都不见。

English Translation

One flake two flakes three, four flakes,

Five six seven eight nine ten flakes, and more still...

Thousands, even millions of snow flakes,

When floating into plum blossoms, are nil...

By Zheng Banqiao

Why Chinese poems is so special?: The most distinctive features of Chinese poetry are: concision- many poems are only four lines, and few are much longer than eight; ambiguity- number, tense and parts of speech are often undetermined, creating particularly rich interpretative possibilities; and structure- most poems follow quite strict formal patterns which have beauty in themselves as well as highlighting meaningful contrasts.

How to read a Chinese poem?: Like an English poem, but more so. Everything is there for a reason, so try to find that reason. Think about all the possible connotations, and be aware of the different possibilities of number and tense. Look for contrasts: within lines, between the lines of each couplet and between successive couplets. Above all, don't worry about what the poet meant- find your meaning.

List of Chinese poets