<p>Actually, we use &quot;rhyme book&quot; that divides commonly used characters into different rhyme. There are two popular rhyme books nowadays: <a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E6%B0%B4%E9%9F%BB" rel="nofollow noreferrer">平水韵</a> for ancient rhyme and <a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF%E6%96%B0%E9%9F%BB" rel="nofollow noreferrer">中华新韵</a> for modern rhyme. Here is a link to an <a href="https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E6%B0%B4%E9%9F%BB" rel="nofollow noreferrer">electronic copy of 平水韵</a>.</p>
<p>In the translation you post, there are four characters in each line. Because many Chinese characters express similar meanings, you could choose one character that rhyme with other lines. In your example, it is the character &quot;旁&quot; in the line “植於溪旁”.</p>
<p>Since ancient Chinese grammar is extremely flexible, you could almost always position that character in rhyme (旁) at the end of the sentence, and the sentence can still make sense with some rearrangements. For example, let's assume that 旁 does not rhyme with others but 溪 does, then we can rearrange the sentence into &quot;植木傍溪&quot;, and then 溪 is at the end this time.</p>
<p>In sum, you can almost always translate a foreign literature into Chinese poetry due to the flexibility of the Chinese grammar and the flexible meaning of each ancient Chinese character.</p>
<p>By the way, the aesthetic elegance does not comes with the rhyme alone. You could also learn the <a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A0%BC%E5%BE%8B" rel="nofollow noreferrer">格律</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-09T02:41:50.113Z
2020-08-09T05:48:11.363Z
2020-08-09T05:48:11.363Z
High GPA
<p>I found the following traslation of Psalm 1:3-4 of the Bible amazingly elegant:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>譬彼林木、植於溪旁、隨時結果、其葉青蒼、百事允臧、維彼惡者、猶之粃糠、爲風飄揚。</p>
  
  <p>English (KJV): And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of
  water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also
  shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly
  are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>To me the Chinese translation from Hebrew gives much more aesthetic pleasure. I guess part of the reason is 押韻(rhyme). In general, is there any guideline on how to rhyme when translating poetry?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-12T07:16:55.460Z
Are you finding something like [this](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%89%E8%BE%99)? I use "Zhuyin" to divide, but it seems most people on stack website using something "pinyin" I can't understand. It's hard to learn to translate with rhyme even a native speaker. We could use very simple rhyme, but not very good at it.
高鵬翔
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-12T11:01:19.317Z
Do you mean _how to tell if two words rhyme_ or _how to create translations that rhyme_? The latter is much harder, it is possibly even harder than writing a poem itself (you have control over the idea of the poem you write, but no control over the idea of source material you translate), I'm not sure if there is a silver bullet to this problem.
zypA13510
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-13T05:13:12.700Z
I mean _How to create translations that rhyme?_  is hard lol
高鵬翔
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-13T05:32:23.230Z
I use "Zhuyin", so I could say there are "旁、蒼、臧、糠、揚" have rhyme, because they all have "ㄤ" sound, maybe is some other use "ang, iang, uang"?  And they all "平"聲 in [平仄](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E4%BB%84)
高鵬翔
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-13T05:39:43.630Z
You could study [格律](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A0%BC%E5%BE%8B) , it is four part about how people in past create poetry's rule. But there are some different rule in different era. If you understand "格律" should let you more easier to create rhyme.
高鵬翔
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-05-13T05:51:17.493Z
And the ["近體詩"](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BF%91%E4%BD%93%E8%AF%97) will be similar about what you want to create about rhyme
高鵬翔
<translation><classical-chinese>
How to rhyme (押韻) when translating poetry?
# How to rhyme (押韻) when translating poetry?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-05-12)

I found the following traslation of Psalm 1:3-4 of the Bible amazingly elegant:

> 譬彼林木、植於溪旁、隨時結果、其葉青蒼、百事允臧、維彼惡者、猶之粃糠、爲風飄揚。
>
> English (KJV): And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of
> water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also
> shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly
> are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

To me the Chinese translation from Hebrew gives much more aesthetic pleasure. I guess part of the reason is 押韻(rhyme). In general, is there any guideline on how to rhyme when translating poetry?

**Tags:** translation, classical-chinese
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Are you finding something like [this](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%89%E8%BE%99)? I use "Zhuyin" to divide, but it seems most people on stack website using something "pinyin" I can't understand. It's hard to learn to translate with rhyme even a native speaker. We could use very simple rhyme, but not very good at it.  
> **username_2**: Do you mean _how to tell if two words rhyme_ or _how to create translations that rhyme_? The latter is much harder, it is possibly even harder than writing a poem itself (you have control over the idea of the poem you write, but no control over the idea of source material you translate), I'm not sure if there is a silver bullet to this problem.  
> **username_1**: I mean _How to create translations that rhyme?_  is hard lol  
> **username_1**: I use "Zhuyin", so I could say there are "旁、蒼、臧、糠、揚" have rhyme, because they all have "ㄤ" sound, maybe is some other use "ang, iang, uang"?  And they all "平"聲 in [平仄](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E4%BB%84)  
> **username_1**: You could study [格律](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A0%BC%E5%BE%8B) , it is four part about how people in past create poetry's rule. But there are some different rule in different era. If you understand "格律" should let you more easier to create rhyme.  
> **username_1**: And the ["近體詩"](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BF%91%E4%BD%93%E8%AF%97) will be similar about what you want to create about rhyme  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-08-09. Score: 2

Actually, we use "rhyme book" that divides commonly used characters into different rhyme. There are two popular rhyme books nowadays: [平水韵](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E6%B0%B4%E9%9F%BB) for ancient rhyme and [中华新韵](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF%E6%96%B0%E9%9F%BB) for modern rhyme. Here is a link to an [electronic copy of 平水韵](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E6%B0%B4%E9%9F%BB).

In the translation you post, there are four characters in each line. Because many Chinese characters express similar meanings, you could choose one character that rhyme with other lines. In your example, it is the character "旁" in the line “植於溪旁”.

Since ancient Chinese grammar is extremely flexible, you could almost always position that character in rhyme (旁) at the end of the sentence, and the sentence can still make sense with some rearrangements. For example, let's assume that 旁 does not rhyme with others but 溪 does, then we can rearrange the sentence into "植木傍溪", and then 溪 is at the end this time.

In sum, you can almost always translate a foreign literature into Chinese poetry due to the flexibility of the Chinese grammar and the flexible meaning of each ancient Chinese character.

By the way, the aesthetic elegance does not comes with the rhyme alone. You could also learn the [格律](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A0%BC%E5%BE%8B).


---

