User Comments - darylk
darylk
Posted on: Saying Good-bye at a Tavern in Nanjing -- 金陵酒肆留别
June 2, 2009 at 2:49 AMMy favorite poem about saying goodbye is written by Gerald Manley Hopkins. Perhaps Li Bai, too, would have loved this poem if he had known of it.
Spring and Fall, to a Young Child
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
-- Gerard Manley Hopkins
Posted on: Saying Good-bye at a Tavern in Nanjing -- 金陵酒肆留别
June 2, 2009 at 2:10 AMI'm sorry to learn that this lesson ends the Poems with Pete series--a really lovely entree into Chinese culture that provided the material for many great conversations with my many Chinese friends. Still, the river flows on...
Posted on: Buying a House
May 29, 2009 at 3:30 AMLet's hope housing prices come down in China as they have in the US.
Posted on: Thinking of my Brothers by Moonlight -- 月夜忆舍兄
May 26, 2009 at 5:55 PMAnother stellar poem and interpretation. A request: please put the poem's name and author in the comments section along with the pinyin version (i.e., as well as at the top of the lesson). I cut and paste these pinyin poems to Word so I can make them more readable and can annotate them. It would be a big help to have all the info in one place. Thanks.
Posted on: Podcast Language 1
May 23, 2009 at 7:31 PMVery useful. Would have been great to have had this back when I was trying to transition from Elementary to Intermediate. I did eventually figure these expressions out but for the longest time I heard "yi dian", not "yi bian." Thanks for a great lesson.
Posted on: Springtime on the River -- 次北固山下
May 21, 2009 at 12:33 AMI think the reference to the goose is perhaps meant to evoke all of the other great Tang poems that mention geese as social animals that are lost when separated from the flock/gaggle. See
Du Mu
A Night at a Tavern
Solitary at the tavern,
I am shut in with loneliness and grief.
Under the cold lamp, I brood on the past;
I am kept awake by a lost wildgoose.
...Roused at dawn from a misty dream,
I read, a year late, news from home –
And I remember the moon like smoke on the river
And a fisher-boat moored there, under my door.
Many other Tang poems also mention lost geese.
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Taiwan
May 18, 2009 at 3:10 AMHere's a recipe for the dish mentioned in the lessons but check out the calories and sodium content. Might be a good idea to reduce the oil and soy sauce a bit.
Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji)
Active Work Time and Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Although Three Cup Chicken is named for its three liquid ingredients--sesame oil, rice wine and soy sauce--its enticing aroma is what attracts your attention.
Scents of ginger and basil waft from this version of the traditional Taiwanese dish.
Such a fragrant meal seems like it would take awhile to prepare, but this comes together quickly. Buy chicken parts rather than a whole chicken, if you prefer. Serve the chicken over steamed jasmine rice.
Sautéed pea sprouts are a nice side dish; sauté them briefly in a little sesame oil and minced garlic. The sprouts are sold at Asian markets.
Fresh fruit is a cooling finish.
Shaoxing wine, Chinese rice wine, is found at Asian stores.
1 (3 1/2-pound) chicken, cut up
1/2 cup sesame oil
1 (3-inch) piece ginger root, peeled, sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
10 cloves garlic, lightly smashed
1/2 cup shaoxing wine or other rice wine
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup loosely packed basil leaves
Cut the chicken parts into 2-inch pieces using a cleaver. Set aside.
Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ginger and garlic and cook until aromatic, 1 minute. Increase the heat to high and add the chicken. Cook, moving the pieces around, until the flesh no longer looks pink, 3 minutes.
Add the shaoxing wine, soy sauce and sugar, stirring to mix well. Cover the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is reduced by half and the chicken is cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in the basil just before serving.
4 servings. Each serving: 863 calories; 2,201 mg sodium; 200 mg cholesterol; 58 grams fat; 12 grams saturated fat; 12 grams carbohydrates; 66 grams protein; 0.78 grams fiber.
SHOPPING LIST
Basil
Chicken
Fresh fruit
Ginger root
Sesame oil
Pea sprouts
Shaoxing wine
GAME PLAN
30 minutes before: Slice ginger, mince garlic, cut up chicken.
25 minutes before: Cook ginger and garlic, begin cooking chicken.
20 minutes before: Start rice.
5 minutes before: Cook pea sprouts.
Just before serving: Stir basil into chicken.
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Taiwan
May 18, 2009 at 12:46 AMI had fabulous food in the Shi Lin Ye Shi (Shi Lin night market) and it wasn't at all Western. I was glad, though, to hear Ken confess that Niu Rou MIan was not his favorite Taiwanese dish. Although this dish was always pushed by natives as the best dish,I also did not find it super-tasty. Ok, but not great. Some of the seafood dishes were far superior.
Posted on: The Brocade Zither -- 锦瑟
May 14, 2009 at 1:22 PMThe posts have been wonderfully provocative. Thanks to all fellow poddies for your close readings of the poem. Some have felt the closing line was a bit sad and negative. What do others feel at the close? The poem doesn't make me sad--as I read it, I feel rather suspended in time and space. Not sad, not happy, not yearning, not nostalgic--just suspended.
Posted on: The Pinyin Program Will Be Unleashed
June 20, 2009 at 4:21 AMPosting to Helen's link is a good idea. But perhaps it would also help you guys if you would ask the poster for a tag--interpersonal relations; popular culture; high brow history/arts, etc. I understand that different folks might use different tags but it still might help the lesson developers work their way through a range of ideas. Just a thought...