A Chinese Tea Pot Inscription for an English meaning

[Guest nakamuta]

Hello everybody!

I've got a teapot and cups with Chinese inscriptions on them. I love to drink tea so all the hieroglyphs are before my eyes. I live in Russia and have just begun to learn Mandarin.

Please help me to get the meanings of all those inscriptions. I've put numbers to every picture for referencing in your posts. Please reference to the column numbers as well.

And please, give pinyin Romanized sounds of the inscriptions. What language or Chinese dialect was used there?

If you'd like to discuss that theme please contact me via Skype: nakamuta.mak.

1. The cup:

http://noyabrskclocks.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/p7230074.jpg

2. The teapot (1-3 columnes from left to right):

http://noyabrskclocks.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/p7230075.jpg

3. The teapot (4-6 columnes from left to right):

http://noyabrskclocks.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/p7230076.jpg

[jbradfor]

The first four lines on the teapot are, I think,

接天连叶无穷碧，映日荷花别样红

I'll try to get a source and a translation soon. [bTW, the above is simplified characters, your teapot is traditional characters, sorry, at work, can't type traditional....]

P.S. "連葉" -- should that be "蓮葉"? I can't understand it well enough to be sure....

[Guest nakamuta]

Hello, jbradfor!

Thank you for starting to help me

To be true I'm new to Chinese characters and it's difficult for me to see differences between a hand written script (as on the teapot) and PC generated one.

Please let me know if you need more zoomed pictures or video for better understanding the scripts, so I would post them below.

[jbradfor]

According to here, the poem is by 杨万里 (1127—1206). Here is the full text, plus a very pitiful translation from me. Note that your pot has the last two lines only.

晓出净慈寺 (Early morning at 净慈寺 (a shrine at West Lake, Hangzhou))

送林子方 (For 林子方 (a friend of the poet's))

毕竟西湖六月中， (Nothing can compare to West Lake in July[1])

风光不与四时同。 (the scenery is like nothing else during the year)

接天莲叶无穷碧， (The blue sky merges with the blue water lilies)

映日荷花别样红。 (The shine from the red lotus has no equal)

[1] The original says June, not July, but that would be June in the Chinese calendar, I assume, which would put it around July-August)

[SherryChen]

leave me your email address.. i will send you the image which i add the phonetic notation for each letter for you

here i cant upload them : (

[yzl]

The cup is inscribed with "清香", which means a faint scent.

jbradfor has explained the first four lines to you (not bad translation).

And the last is the information about the producer of this porcelain. I believe it's a little bit hard to recognize some characters written in simple/obsolete style.

青山作于景德镇 Produced in 景德镇(the well known place in China for producing the porcelain), by 青山(the producer's name).

[Guest nakamuta]

Thank you very much for help in translation! It seems to be a very beautiful poem about circumstances which are natural in China. I'm happy now and going to study Chinese with new internal forces and hope. Thank you!

[Peter2010]

The cup is inscribed with "清香", which means a faint scent.

looks like "清省" to me.

[jbradfor]

Oh yeah, and if you want the pronunciation, just copy the text into your favorite on-line dictionary. If you don't have one, I suggest you start with http://www.mdbg.net/ .

[Guest nakamuta]

Thank you, jbradfor, for the link as I for the first time encounter such an online vocabulary.

All the others dear assistants' posts are gratefully highly appreciated.

Good luck to you all and... presently I drink tea for your health ;)