Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi (The Story of Mr. Shi Eating Lions) (page 47)
when the whole sentence in Chinese is just "shi"
On page 40 I wrote about the pirates discussing language and philosophy:
“I myself know some Maninka, as does the Captain,” boasted Mr. Smee in an aside. “A moody fellow he, that Ludwig Wittgenstein. I heard it from Chao Yuen Ren (who wrote that blastedly clever Lion-eating Poem), who heard it from Bertrand Russell (who cowrote that blastedly incomprehensible Principia Mathematica), that every morning Wittgenstein begins his work with hope, and every evening he ends in despair.
That Chao Yuen Ren the good bo’sun Mr. Smee was going on about wrote the infernally clever essay/poem Shi Shi Shi Shi Shi, The Story of Mr. Shi Eating Lions.
It’s pronounced like this:
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.
Translated into English by Professor Victor H. Mair:
Mr. Shi, a poet who lived in a stone house, liked to eat lions. He vowed to eat ten lions.
He often went to the market to look at lions.
At ten o’clock, he went to the market,
(and) just then ten large lions (also) came to the market.
At that time, he saw these ten lions. Relying on the power of ten arrows with stone tips, he caused the ten lions to pass away.
He picked up the bodies of the ten lions and went back to his stone house.
The stone house was damp, so he told his servant to try and wipe it (dry).
After the house had been wiped (dry), he began to try to eat the bodies of the ten lions.
As he was eating, he realized that the bodies of the ten large lions were actually bodies of ten large stone lions. Only then did he understand the real situation.
Can (you) explain what happened?
Perfectly made point: classical Chinese can’t be written in a Latin script and still make sense.
Written in Chinese characters, the only way this can be understood:
石室詩士施氏,嗜獅,誓食十獅。
氏時時適市視獅。
十時,適十獅適市。
是時,適施氏適市。
氏視是十獅,恃矢勢,使是十獅逝世。
氏拾是十獅屍,適石室。
石室濕,氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭,氏始試食是十獅。
食時,始識是十獅,實十石獅屍。
試釋是事。
To answer Mr. Chao Yuen Ren: Sir, I can’t explain what happened.