Shi
Friday 19th May
Chinese has fewer syllable sounds than English - some 1700 instead of around 8000 - but the tonal system helps to differentiate words. However, sometimes a story will make sense only when written down as in this example…
First in English:
Story of Shi Eating the Lions
A poet named Shi lived in a stone room,
fond of lions, he swore that he would eat ten lions.
He constantly went to the market to look for ten lions.
At ten o’clock, ten lions came to the market
and Shi went to the market.
Looking at the ten lions, he relied on his arrows
to cause the ten lions to pass away.
Shi picked up the corpses of the ten lions and took them to his stone room.
The stone room was damp. Shi ordered a servant to wipe the stone room.
As the stone den was being wiped, Shi began to try to eat the meat of the ten lions.
At the time of the meal, he began to realize that the ten lion corpses were in fact were ten stone lions.
Try to explain this matter.
Then Chinese:
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,適施氏適是市.
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,氏始試食十獅屍.
食時, 始識十獅屍, 實十石獅屍.
試釋是事.
Pronounced as follows…
shī shì shí shī shǐ
shí shì shī shì shī shì,
shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
shì shí shí shì shì shì shī
shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
shì shí, shì shī shì shì shì shì.
shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì,
shǐ shì shí shī shì shì.
shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shí shì.
shí shì, shī, shì shǐ shì shì shí shì.
shí shì shì, shì shǐ shì shí shí shī shī.
shí shí, shǐ shì shì shí shī shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
shì shì shì shì
?
Code Monkey
19 May 06 at 3:24 pm
… and what’s the answer?
/lordhuttonqc
sweavo
19 May 06 at 4:09 pm
what a load of shi
henry
19 May 06 at 5:10 pm
Wha…?
Lois
19 May 06 at 6:30 pm
Blimey. It must be easier for Chinese people to learn English!
lordhutton
19 May 06 at 7:40 pm
Add one letter and you get a great brand of premium clothing - shti - Sam Holloway Textile Industries.
Sam
20 May 06 at 9:40 am
The ending to the story was a bit rubbish. I was expecting a better twist.
Rich
22 May 06 at 12:37 pm