Someone wrote about my Chinese. I have to admit that the person is absolutely correct. I wanted to write an entry but was too lazy. So I shall post a short version of it here without elaboration. My poem says it all...
Notice there's no English translation. It's for the more adventurous ones to try their hand. :)
風花雪月句句精,
之乎者也字字識.
日常白話頭霧水,
說來講去無顏色. (The original was 無點色 as a homophone for 無點識, "don't know much" in Cantonese)
yes, i agree. especially "日常白话头雾水，谁来讲去无颜色。"
感觉用白话读比较溜口
圣贤思志传千古，
赋比风骚唱万世。(Make people believe and know your idea by giving examples. This also shows the beauty of classical Chinese you read.)
沉醉潜修狂亦痴，(Don't say you are an expert directly. This actually means it inderectly.)
习言白话何乐耶？(Note there are many beautiful poems and passages written in modern Chinese. It's unfair to say 白话無點色 or 说白话就是无见识. We Chinese speakers don't live in your poems. We exist objectively and objectively and natually speak modern Chinese. But, you have freedom to say it's not beautiful :) However, if I were you, I would only say I myself am not interested in learning it instead of saying it is not beautiful.）
没两个字平仄相对，平仄平，仄平仄，仄平仄，平仄平。That's the rythm. The only exception is the last sentence. I honestly don't have much time to write perfectly. Nonetheless, this is not at all a good poem. For amusement only. I spent almost half an hour on it. Really difficult for me.
Again,
幸甚至哉 歌以咏志
Poets feel something really wonderful and compose poetry to describe it and his will. That's why we love poetry. We don't like reading people playing with uncommon words or beautiful words only. This style is called in Chinese 风花雪月 or 空洞无物 or 附庸风雅 or 无病呻吟 etc.
Confucius said, "言之无文，行而不远", (Without good language, your idea cannot be popular.)
Another more famous saying is, 今人徙知‘言之无文’，而不知言之无物，又何用文为乎？or the idiom 言之无物 meaning
Most know that "Without good language, your idea cannot be popular.", but few know that without good content, your language is useless.
3. 句句 and 字字
My friend, are you serious? Did you really think in Chinese? What you meant is
I am an expert(精) on every sentences(句句) featuring 风花雪月.
I know every word（字字） used in classical Chinese.
Are you serious? I'm not a native English speaker, but I know this sounds really terrible.
<em>I am very good at poetic Chinese.</em>
<em>I can easily understand classical and archaic Chinese.</em>
I think this translation isn't beautiful, but is much better than your Chinese version, although my English is not good at all.
