The Chinese characters 分 meaning is divide; separate.

This ideogram is made up of 八 (divide), and clarified by radical 刀 (knife) to enforce the idea of dividing or separating. It is like dividing with a knife. 分 is used also for any small division, component or part, e.g., a minute, a mark or a cent.

The Chinese characters 刀 meaning is knife, sword.

This radical is a pictograph of a knife or sword. Wielded in the cause of justice, the sword protects the innocent; but brandished irresponsibly, it is double-edged. A sharp blade is likened to a person vested with too much power, and a proverb warns: “A knife that’s too sharp easily cuts the fingers.”

The Chinese characters 完 meaning is finish; complete.

This ideogram places roof (宀) over head (元). 元 means that which is upon (上 or 二) a person (人 or 儿), i.e., the head, origin or principle. So, putting on the roof over the head finishes (完) the building. Hence: 完, the end.

The Chinese characters 定 meaning is fix; decide; certain.

This character is made up of roof (宀) and order (正). It signifies peace and order under the roof, implanting the idea of fixed, certain or decided: 定. Order under the roof comes before order under the heavens, although the proverb states in no uncertain terms: “It is for man to plan, but for Heaven to decide.”

The Chinese characters 害 meaning is harm; injure.

丰 represents a stick marred by notches; mouth (口) suggests harm caused by slander; and roof (宀) indicates injury done under cover, i.e., secretly. From these components people created harm: 害, fully realising that “he who harms others, harms himself.”

The Chinese characters 宝 meaning is precious.

Among the ancients, the precious things under the roof (宀) were jade (玉 or 王), earthenware (缶) and money cowrie (貝). Hence: 寶, meaning precious. Under his toof, modern people treasures gem or jade (玉), so he simplified 寶 to 宝. But, in his shop; “customers are the precious things; goods are only grass.”

The Chinese characters 富 meaning is rich; abundant.

People created this symbol for material prosperity: 富; from 宀 (roof), 高 (high) and 田 (field). Under shelter of the roof (宀), he piled up high the products of his field and amassed great wealth: 富. Spiritual wealth, however, is to be preferred, according to the saying: “Riches adorn the house; virtue adorns the person.”

This poem was written in the spring of 757 when Du Fu was still a captive in the capital occupied by the rebels. In the first couplet we see the contrast between man and nature. The second line is antithetical: the city should be beautiful in spring but grass and weed overgrew in disorder. It also forms an antithesis to the first line: the capital in spring in contrast with the war-torn land.

The second couplet is also antithetical and subject to different interpretations. Most commentators think it was the poet who shed tears with a broken heart. But most translators prefer to personify the: flowers and birds, for if flowers were moved to tears and birds cried with broken heart, then we can easily imagine how deep the poet’s grief would be.

In the third couplet we find a contrast between war and peace symbolized by a letter from home. But the first line of this couplet is also subject to two interpretations, the war might have lasted three months or one year, that is, from the third moon of 756 to that of 757. Judging from the fact, I think it better to say “third moon” than “three months.

The last couplet gives a picture of the poet’s grief, with which his hair grizzled and in which he scratched his hair until it grew too thin to hold a hairpin. But his grief was not only personal but also that of many people. That is the reason why this Chinese poem is considered representative of Du’s poetry for it has exercised a deep influence not only in China but also in Japan.

The antithetical phrases so characteristic of Chinese style, but the beautiful form of Chinese poetry, its rhyme, its rhythm and tones - those are untranslatable. In my version I have tried the impossible and have the Untranslatable translated.

SPRING VIEW
On war-torn land streams flow and mountains stand;
In towns unquiet grass and weeds run riot.
Grieved o’er the years flowers are moved to tears;
Homes cut apart birds cry with broken heart.
The beacon fire has gone higher and higher;
Words from household are worth their weight in gold.
I cannot bear to scratch my grizzling hair;
It grows too thin to hold a light hair-pin.

春望

国破山河在，城春草木深。

感时花溅泪，恨别鸟惊心。

烽火连三月，家书抵万金。

白头搔更短，浑欲不胜簪。

The Chinese characters 开 meaning is open.

A bar o r bolt across the door means to shut. Two hands taking away the bar signifies to open: 开. But there is more to the business of opening than just unbolting the door. As the proverb says: “To open a shop is easy; the difficult thing is to keep it open.”

The Chinese characters 闻 meaning is hear; news.

In this ideograph, “ear” (耳) becomes “hear” when placed at the door (门). By extension 闻 also means news, for the ear is the door of knowledge or information. But not all news obtained by the ear is reliable, as the saying goes: “What the ear hears is not equal to what the eye sees.”