{"id":56351,"date":"2022-09-26T08:52:48","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T13:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=56351"},"modified":"2022-09-26T08:52:48","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T13:52:48","slug":"jichang-lulu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=56351","title":{"rendered":"Jichang Lulu"},"content":{"rendered":"

That's the name of a treasured Language Log reader and contributor (see under \"Selected Readings\").\u00a0 When I asked him how to write that in Sinoglyphs, he told me that it is this:<\/p>\r\n

\u98e2\u8178\u8f46\u8f46 \/ simpl. \u9965\u80a0\u8f98\u8f98<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Wanting to get the tones, I typed \"jichanglulu\" into Google Translate (GT), but forgot to click the space bar to make the conversion to characters with Hanyu Pinyin transcription complete with tones.\u00a0 When I pressed the speaker button to hear how that sounded, what came out was something like Mandarin with an English accent, but still perfectly intelligible:\u00a0 \"jichanglulu\".\u00a0 It resembled the Mandarin produced by the strangers on the street who read off the Pinyin texts handed to them by my wife, Li-ching Chang.\u00a0 She was always delighted when she heard them pronouncing Mandarin without ever having studied it.\u00a0 \"Jichanglulu\" — see, you can say it too!<\/p>\r\n

Adding the tones, we get j\u012bch\u00e1ng l\u00f9l\u00f9.\u00a0 What does this somewhat odd assortment of sounds signify?<\/p>\r\n

GT says \"hungry\", more literally, \"hungry intestines are rumbling\".<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

I'm tickled pink that the onomatopoeia for the sound of the intestines rumbling — like carts trundling\u00a0 — have wheel radicals.\u00a0 Think of what's going on down in your bowels when they make these noises.<\/p>\r\n

One must not think of ch\u00e1ng as purely physical organs.\u00a0 Often in Chinese poetry, the ch\u00e1ng \u8178 are used metaphorically to evoke intense feeling and emotions, as in the last line of this canto by Ma Zhiyuan<\/a> [ca. 1250-1321:, which is one of my favorites in the entire Chinese poetic canon:<\/p>\r\n

\"Ti\u0101n j\u00ecng sh\u0101 \u00b7 qi\u016bs\u012b\u201d M\u01ce Zh\u00ecyu\u01cen<\/p>\r\n

\u300a<\/a>\u5929\u6de8\u6c99\u00b7\u79cb\u601d\u300b\u99ac\u81f4\u9060<\/span><\/p>\r\n

K\u016b t\u00e9ng l\u01ceo sh\u00f9 h\u016bn y\u0101\r\n\u67af\u85e4\u8001\u6a39\u660f\u9d09<\/span>\r\n\r\nXi\u01ceo qi\u00e1o li\u00fashu\u01d0 r\u00e9nji\u0101\r\n\u5c0f\u6a4b\u6d41\u6c34\u4eba\u5bb6<\/span>\r\n\r\nG\u01d4d\u00e0o x\u012bf\u0113ng sh\u00f2u m\u01ce\r\n\u53e4\u9053\u897f\u98a8\u7626\u99ac<\/span>\r\n\r\nX\u012by\u00e1ng x\u012b xi\u00e0\r\n\u5915\u967d\u897f\u4e0b<\/span>\r\n\r\nDu\u00e0nch\u00e1ng r\u00e9n z\u00e0i ti\u0101ny\u00e1\r\n\u65b7\u8178\u4eba\u5728\u5929\u6daf<\/span>.<\/pre>\r\n
And this is my English translation:<\/p>\r\n
Tune:\u00a0 \"Heaven-Cleansed Sands\"
Autumn Thoughts<\/p>\r\n
Withered wisteria, old tree, darkling crows \u2014
Little bridge over flowing water by someone's house \u2014
Emaciated horse on an ancient road in the western wind \u2014
Evening sun setting in the west \u2014
Broken-hearted man on the horizon.<\/p>\r\n
The challenge for the literary critic is how to understand the psychological transference from the rupture of the physical entrails to the expression of deepest grief.\u00a0 Of course, the same process takes place with \"broken-hearted\".<\/p>\r\n
 <\/p>\r\n
Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\r\n