User Comments - pearltowerpete

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Hi suxuelian07 and alkrasnov

Great to hear from you! I'm looking forward to making this a long, fun series. One Tang poem down, 299 to go...

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Hi chanelle77

Thank you so much! I'm delighted to hear it. Keep listening, and keep your questions and comments coming!

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Wow, where to begin ;-)

Hi calkins

Thanks so much for your support. Jiaojie is such a pleasure to work with. The CPod team will take turns reciting the poems, to give the poddies exposure to different accents, deliveries, etc.

Hi suxiaoya

Thank you! That is a catchy little tune, huh?

For the interpretation of the poem, I drew from the notations in my 唐诗三百首 （very sorry that it's not handy, I will post the pub. data when I get home tonight), and formed a few of my own ideas.

For the biographical information about Meng Jiao and background on Xian, I used the baidu encyclopedia and wikipedia. Nothing earth-shaking, but much of this information is not available in English. In future lessons I have drawn on interpretations of the poem given on the Chinese Government's Department of Education website as resources for teachers. When they are released, I will give links so you can double-check.

I hope poddies with access to more specialized academic resources will share any insights they may have.

Hi foleadu

Great idea about including the poem as a stand-alone download. I have spoken to the tech team and we will do this.

This poem is of the 五言 format, which is very common in Tang poetry.

I've shied away from a line-by-line translation for a couple of reasons. First, there have already been some outstanding translations of Tang poetry into English. Also, Chinese poetry works a little differently from classical English poetry in terms of sentence structure, perspective, and so on. Some academics (again, sorry I don't have the exact citation but will post as soon as I find it) have argued that the best way to understand the poems is in conceptual chunks, rather than sentences.

I'm going to have to think a bit about your other questions, but feedback like yours will help me to plan future podcasts better. My initial idea was to focus basically on each poem in isolation, but if the poddies are crying out for more information on literary style and so on, I am happy to move in that direction.

Hi bababardwan

I'm so happy to hear that you enjoyed it. Tracing words through history is extremely fascinating, but complex. I want the poddies to be confident that I know what I'm talking about. I guess what I mean is that it will take a bit more research before I am ready to focus too much on etymology and word evolution.

But I do hope that poddies with knowledge in this area (包括我们中国听众！） can share their wisdom.

Hi bettine

Thank you very much. As I sort of suggested to bababardwan, I don't feel qualified to talk about the pronunciation that would have been used in the Tang era （although we know that it would have been quite different). But I am happy to look further into this question. I really had no idea that poddies would care！ ；—）

Posted on: What's Your Name?

Hi kobukuro

I certainly don't mind! In fact, looking over my previous comment, I came across as a bit gruff. That's what I get for writing before I've had my third cup of tea to cheer me up!

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Hi henning

I'm honored. We've kicked around the idea of expansion sentences, but the main problem is that so many words have changed their meanings over time that it might become very confusing when compared with Modern Mandarin. If it's something that a lot of people want, we can definitely consider them, though.

Posted on: Guided Plan Gets Better! Plus: Poetry is Pending

Hi antony73

Thanks for your suggestion and support. We're going all-out to make CPod as responsive and useful as possible.

If you want to weigh in on the User Voice page, you can also throw your support behind other poddies' suggestions. We are listening.

Again, thanks for taking the time to let us know what's on your mind.

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Hi urbandweller

Wow, I'm so delighted to hear that you enjoyed it. And I agree, everything is better when you add The King!

Hi roscovanbasten

Thanks so much for your kind words. Keep listening, and keep telling me what you think, and what you're curious to learn more about.

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Hi chistudent

You're too kind. I grew the "mutton-chops" partly for this role, and partly because I like 19th century American history.

我自己都承认这样模仿猫王有点傻， 但总不能把自己当回事 ;-)

He didn't take himself too seriously, and neither do I.

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Hi all

To subscribe to future episodes of "Poems with Pete," please check it in your "Personal RSS Feed" under the "Me" tab.

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Hi marco_m

Thank you very much. That means a lot coming from you.