Duney Posted June 30, 2004 at 01:41 AM Report Posted June 30, 2004 at 01:41 AM I've been exchanging emails with a girl in China and I would like help with a phrase that she wrote. She writes to me in English because I only know a couple words in Chinese, but she used a couple phrases written in Chinese characters when she didn't feel she knew the translation in English that represented how she felt. Her English is kind of rough, but I generally do not have any trouble understanding the meaning she wants to convey. I translated the Chinese characters using altavista but I would like to get the translation from people who know both English and Chinese well. Below is the phrase about how she feels about us. First she wrote 高山流水 which I translated to mean 'good friend'. I asked her why she didn't just say 'good friend' and asked if the Chinese phrase she used had some extra meaning. She wrote back that the full phrase she wanted to say is 高山流水遇知音, but she didn't say this first because she is a 'reserved girl'. altavista translates this 'good friend makes intimate friend'. So how would you define these phrases in English? Also, I thought it interesting that the individual characters in 高山流水 translate to 'high mountain running water' or probably 'high mountain stream'. Is this the symbolism behind the meaning of 'good friend' here or does the set of characters simply mean 'good friend' and the separate meanings of the individual characters do not apply. I am curious how the language is constructed and the history of the word meanings. Quote
ananda Posted June 30, 2004 at 05:17 AM Report Posted June 30, 2004 at 05:17 AM An ancient story between Bo ya and Zi qi. One day Bo ya was playing chinese zither, Zi qi happened to pass by and pointed out that his music was just like 'high mountain, and running river'("Benevolent people like (to live near) mountain, Smart people like (to live near )water."), Bo ya was quite happy that Zi qi knew his music, then they became good friends, when zi qi died, bo ya never played his zither any longer. So '知 音' in chinese has the meaning of 'best friends who know each other' Quote
galitonwu Posted June 30, 2004 at 06:18 AM Report Posted June 30, 2004 at 06:18 AM 高山流水 传说先秦的琴师伯牙一次在荒山野地弹琴，樵夫钟子期竟能领会这是描绘“巍巍乎志在高山”和“洋洋乎志在流水”。 伯牙惊道：“善哉，子之心与吾心同。”子期死后，伯牙痛失知音，摔琴绝弦，终生不操，故有高山流水之曲。 在线欣赏 （mp3下载欣赏） http://www.qinyu.net/musical/china10/gaoshanls.mp3 Quote
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