Translation help please :)

[Okina]

Hello everybody,

i got this beautiful painting of an old chinese poet as a gift from china about a year ago.
im trying to find out whats the name of the poet painted here. im trying to do so by translating the writen part at the top right corner of the painting.
im adding 2 photos: the first if the whole thing and the second is a closeup look at the writen part i want to try and translate
 i hope its ok to ask these kind of things here, anyway its highly appreciated!

Thank you!!!

[MPhillips]

The painting's inscription reads 茅屋爲秋風所破歌 which is also the title of one of Du Fu's poems ("My Thatched Roof is Whirled Away by the Autumn Wind" in Stephen Owen's translation) so the subject of your painting should be Du Fu (杜甫 712-770). It was painted in a 庚寅年 the two most recent being 2010 & 1950. The artist's signature, however, is hard for me to make out.

[Okina]

Thank you so much Mr.MPhillips! you helped me so much!

may i ask what does the 3 lettered word you used mean? i cant copy paste it but it refers to the "two most recent being 2010 & 1950" is that a name of some festival? or event that happand?

thanks again!

[MPhillips]

It was fun--hope I was correct! 庚寅（geng1yin2）is the 27th 年（"year" which is pronounced "nian2"）of the Chinese sexagenary (60 year) cycle. By combining "ten heavenly stems" & "twelve earthly branches" a cycle of sixty unique designations is obtained by which the traditional Chinese calendar identifies each of sixty years in order. Since this cycle repeats itself every sixty years it's impossible to tell which year is being referenced unless there is some further information provided, such as an imperial era name. So in the case of your painting, for instance, one would need to make use of external clues to date it (if it looks bright & new it's only about 4 years old, if a little bit worse for the wear it probably dates from 1950). Tennyson famously referred to the Chinese sexagenary cycle as a "cycle of Cathay" but it seems he was mistaken about its length. BTW the earthly branches each have a Chinese zodiac creature associated with them--since 寅 is ruled by the tiger, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 & 2010 were all Tiger Years.

[Okina]

ohhh so its the date! i understand now, thank you for all your help!
it makes sence that the painting is from 2010  
if u ever need any help translating something from Hebrew i'd love to help you guy out haha

 

Many thanks!

 

[imron]

if u ever need any help translating something from Hebrew

What is Hebrew for Ark, and does it involve 8 mouths?

 

This is not a serious request.  Just thought newer members might get a kick out of older topics

[MPhillips]

Dear Okina--Thanks for your kind offer, but I haven't studied Hebrew--as of yet. :-) M.P.

[Okina]

Haha! that was a firey topic indeed! 
ill give a short asnwer, u can move it over there if you think thats best :-)
I'm sorry about any spelling mistakes (in English) in advance.

Now, i dont know much about Chinese theyology/mythology/lingueistics but i am a native Hebrew speaker, and i have backround of about 12 years of bible studies (from the orignal texts in hebrew ofc).
1. Ark in hebrew is spelled: תיבה - if we break it down in english it should sound: Te-E-Va (as the middle E makes a distinctive E sound). the one and ONLY meaning of this word is ark. any other meaning given to this word is a complete fairytale. sorry :-)
 

2. About the number שמונה (Eight / and the tale of נוח (Noah): As some of you may know some numbers in the bible repeat themselfs in MANY stories. these number are called: "Typological numbers" and as you study the bible you can see them come up again and again, time after time.
the number 8 IS NOT and WAS NEVER a typological number in the bible. infact the numbers 7 and 12 are.
 
The old jewish sages are called "Hazal" lived in 300bc till to about the 5th centhury. these guys are like Confucius to us (meaning they created the basics of  all the Hebrew philosophy/morals/ethic ever made etc') and they also reviewed and interpretated the bible to a microscopic level :-) They wrote the Mishna and the almud.
 
Anyways, what the Hazal guys are saying is that it took Naoh 120 years to build the ark (typological number 12, close to120) and after that it took 7 days before the rain started (7 days.. 7 ofc typological again). this is as far as they go. nothing more is known. everytnig else is fiction.

Should we believe Hazal? well:
1.They had the old bible scrolls that we dont have today..and they read them like 1000000 times and then in VERY heavy minds they made interpretations.
2.Hazal are the oldest source to biblical knowldge known to man kind, so if some legend apeared after them.. if probably fake.
3. NEVERTHELESS: Hazal were only human, they can be wrong.. and they can be corrected!

P.S
This kind of conflicts are most common in Hebrew bible stuides, kids in school are thought to try and get deeper and deepr into cases like these and create new onces (if they can ) every day! its a very cool intellectual exercise even if you are a complete non-believer (like myself).
I hope my answer was relevant, and i hope you enjoyed reading it.. if anyone has ANY other questions ill do my best to answer (and ill try to keep it short this time haha).
peace!

 

[imron]

That was a far more educational reply than I was expecting!  Thanks.