《施氏食獅史》

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。


«Shī Shì shí shī shǐ»

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.


« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »

In a stone den was a poet Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
When he ate, he realized that those ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
Try to explain this matter.


More informations
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den
On the same subject: Chinese poem « Yì yì yì yì yí »

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2009 12:13AM by Olive.

作为一个中国人 我还是第一次看到这种古诗 汗颜啊 有点像 长长长长长的故事 interesting

There's also the "yu yu yu yu yu" story... I'd appreciate if anyone could help with the translation:

于瑜欲渔，遇余于寓。
语余：“余欲渔于渝淤，与余渔渝欤？”
余语于瑜：“余欲玉，俞禹欲玉，余欲遇俞于俞寓。”
余与于瑜遇俞于俞寓，逾俞隅，欲玉与俞，遇雨，雨逾俞宇。
余语于俞：“余欲渔于渝淤，遇雨俞宇，欲渔欤？玉欤？”
于瑜与余御雨于俞寓，俞玉与余禹，雨愈，余与于瑜踽踽逾逾俞宇，渔于渝淤。

于瑜想去钓鱼,到我家找我,对我说:"我想去渝水的滩涂上钓鱼,你和我去吗?'我说:"我打算卖玉,俞禹想买我的玉,我得去他家."于是我同于瑜一同来到了俞禹家,见到了俞禹,想要把玉卖给他.这时天下起了雨,大雨漫过了禹家的房子.我对俞禹说,我本来打算去渝水的滩涂上钓鱼,现在在你家遇上大雨,是该钓鱼呢?还是卖玉呢?于瑜和我在一起在俞家避雨,我把玉卖给了禹禹.等雨停了,我和于瑜慢慢走出俞禹的家,去渝水的滩涂上钓鱼.

谁翻译下吧 我只会翻译成Chinglish

建议学习汉语的朋友不要学习这种绕口令
绝大多数中国人也是说不好这样的文字的

是绕口令加文言文吧 ····

hehehe, this is funny. well, foreigners can have a try when they are practicing the pinyin tones,not for the exactly meanings, but feel the tones, and get the idea that in chinese,many characters have absolutely same pronuciation, including pinyin and tones. so if you wanna be an chinese expert,you have to learn chinese characters oneday, chinese people don't use pinyin i neveryday life. like my father, he is more than 50,but still donn't know pinyin at all. but he can write characters. so, you can take this kind of poem for fun.
translation....tooo long,maybe have a try when i am free.

nihao ... I have sth similar but is smaller

shí shì shí, sí shì sì
shísì shì shísì, síshí shì sìchí
shí bù shì sì, sì bù shì shí
shísì bù shì sìshí, sìshí bú shì shísì

I'm just learning chinese and my teacher gives me that to practice the pronuntiation hehehe....

okay , in chinese, it means:
十 是 十，四 是 四，
十四 是 十四， 四十 是 四十，
十 不是 四，四 不是 十，
十四 不是 四十，四十 不是 十四。
ten is ten , four is four.
fourteen is fourteen, forty is forty,
ten is not four,four is not ten,
fourteen is not forty,forty is not fourteen.

this one is really good, and i will use it next time for a try.

wow, feichang ganxie!!! ... yes, i'm agree this is very useful for practicing the pronunciation, but it's complicated too

Excuse my ignorance, but what is all this?

It's "tongue twister + ancient Chinese"!
中国人的智慧啊！我骄傲！

This tongue twister is insane!

Oh my god, It's realy difficult.

i want to learn language mandari but... blank it... can you help me