Jeff
蒙學漢文初階 第一百四課 Beginning Chinese - Entry Level Lesson #104 花園有假山其險 flower garden has fake mountain its danger 張氏兒謂眾曰 Chang clan child told crowd said 孰登之我酬以錢 who surmount it I reward with money 眾兒爭先 crowd children fight first 一兒曰 one child said 吾非售技者 I not seller skills the_one_who 豈可重財而輕命耶 how can heavy riches and light life [ep] In the garden, there is a miniature mountain. A child from the Chang clan said to a group of children, "Who so ever would climb it, I will reward him with money." All the kids fought to be the first. However, one declared, "I am no vendor of abilities. How can I place emphasis on riches and not on my life!" Notes: 1. 假山 literally means fake hill/mountain. Many dictionaries choose to translate it as "rockery" or rock garden which is totally wrong. Rockery is an area where rocks or stones are placed to so that plants can grow among them. A Chinese fake hill is some stone structure to resemble a miniature hill or mountain for viewing pleasure. It is a garden element in Chinese landscape architecture to miniaturize nature, just like bonsai. 2. Here 重 and 輕 means to take or view things with heaviness or lightness. 3. 豈 unlike何 is an emphatic questioning. 4. 耶 is a final particle denoting great emphasis for the preceding action. Usually this can be replaced by an interjection mark.
Sep 21, 2014 5:51 PM