Poem - 登鹳雀楼

Poem from Peanut's Mom on Vimeo.

Seriously, she's reciting Chinese poems now, courtesy of the education she's getting at "Grandma Daycare." This particular one happens to be in her repertoire, and last month's 巧虎 DVD.  Don't be fooled by her poor pronunciation.  She's just being playful.  She won't recite any of her poems by request.  Only when she feels like it.  I've heard her through the monitor before she got up; while playing by herself; falling asleep, etc.

登鹳雀楼:
白日依山盡,
黄河入海流。
欲窮千里目,
更上一層樓。

Found this with Google: http://www.jsedu.net/szty/msxs/ms_025.htm

这是一首五绝（五言绝句）前两句写景，景中含情；后两句抒情，情中见理。短短二十个字，有景，有 情，有理，结合得又是这样自然、完美，在艺术上真可说是“炉火纯青”了。

    Wang Zhihuan (688-742) was a poet of the Tang Dynasty. During the prosperous period of the Dynasty, there were some poets very skillful at describing the scenery of remote land beyond the Great Wall and the life of military service. Wang was one of them.

    This poem was written on the Stork-bird Tower. It is said that this three-storeyed Tower was built on a sandbar in the middle of the Yellow River near present-day Yongji County of Shanxi Province. The Tower was a famous tourist spot in the Tang Dynasty and was destroyed by the river torrents after the Song Dynasty.

    On the top of the Tower and fascinated by the beautiful view, Wang chanted:”As daylight fades along the hill,/ The Yellow River joins the sea./ To gaze unto infinity, /Go mount another storey still.”

    In these verses, we see a vivid picture. The bright sun was setting gradually to the complete disappearance behid the west ern hills and the roaring rapids in the Yellow River were surging towards the vast sea. The poet knew the world was much larger than he could see. In order to have a better view, he had to step onto a higher storey. The profound message that the poem intended to send is that if one wants to make progress continu ously, he has to keep working harder and setting higher demands on himself throughout his life.