September 9, 2023 - Blessing (祝福) by Xiang Zi (祥子)

[cloud zealot]

This week's text is the poem Blessing (祝福) by the poet Xiang Zi (祥子)

Traditional Chinese

祝福你
身邊的碗筷和被子
乾乾淨淨
放在該放的地方
不破損
也不破損什麼
在你的身旁
滿山花開
一片不落
令人神往

Simplified Chinese

祝福你
身边的碗筷和被子
干干净净
放在该放的地方
不破损
也不破损什么
在你的身旁
满山花开
一片不落
令人神往

English

A Blessing for you,
that the dishes and quilts around you,
are spick and span;
put where they ought to be,
unbroken,
and in harmony with everything else; *
that by your side,
the hills bloom with flowers,
not a petal falling down,
capitvating people's hearts.
Translation source: @dreamy blaze

Feel free to write in any style you want and post it below!

[normal glade]

？？

[bold spindle]

is the challenge in Chinese or English

Or both

[cloud zealot]

you can write it in english if you'd like! however we do recommend you write in chinese since the english part is a translation

[severe bear]

first attempt its not great

[cloud zealot]

Very well done for a first try

[rotund river]

First time doing one of these challenges, and since I’m not taking a mandarin class this year, it felt kinda nostalgic to write the characters again!

[shut ore]

restarted the first line 3 times then just decided to go through without restarting anymore

[bold spindle]

soooo pretty

[shut ore]

謝謝！

[uncut compass]

i love your handwriting omg

[proven tendon]

The first time I've written in Chinese in months, doesn't look that good

[dreamy blaze]

in a bit of a rush here we go

[proven tendon]

insanely good

[silk bear]

好漂亮啊！

[dreamy blaze]

now I have to have lunch and rush into town lmao

[worthy spire]

Oh pretty

[worthy spire]

I think it should be 乾乾淨淨

[cloud zealot]

Oh shoot

[worthy spire]

[cloud zealot]

Imma edit it when I’m home

[worthy spire]

Don't have paper with me

[cloud zealot]

Done edit. Thanks for pointing it out

[proven tendon]

rip

[proven tendon]

nice

[agile rampart]

Do we just write whatever?

[silk bear]

There’s a poem that you can copy

[silk bear]

在这里

[cloud zealot]

you can write the poem in simplified or traditional. you can also write it in english if you prefer! though it is just a translation and doesn't exactly do the original poem justice

[dreamy blaze]

if it doesnt really have a canoncial trasnlation I've kinda written something out too

A Blessing for you,
that the dishes and quilts around you,
are spick and span;
put where they ought to be,
unbroken,
and in harmony with everything else; *
that by your side,
the hills bloom with flowers,
not a petal falling down,
capitvating people's hearts.

(* artistic liberty)

[agile rampart]

What's the difference between traditional and simplified?

[cloud zealot]

ohhh that's a nice rendition! do you mind if i use it and credit you?

[cloud zealot]

traditional is, well, the traditional way of writing them. more strokes, generally more "aesthetically pleasing"

simplified is a simplified way of writing, less strokes, cleaner characters.

it's a personal preference tbh, some learn one or the other, some learn both. but most people will prefer one over the other due to many reasons

[dreamy blaze]

go ahead

[agile rampart]

are they similar?

[dreamy blaze]

theres a couple hundred which are quite different, several more hundred which are slightly different, and the vast majority pretty much unchanged

also to make things more confusing its not the same as stnadardisation, so 争爭强強 isnt actually a simplification lol

[umbral kettle]

wait youre not native

wtf thats insanely good

[leaden crypt]

why does this challenge sound so weird

[dreamy blaze]

yeah someone's done lots of practice damn

[rotund moon]

The amount of 方 in this piece

[somber estuary]

Damn great job

[shell current]

Idk if I should do 行书, too lazy

Maybe will do later

Lmao

[shell current]

Sorry for spamming but I feel this was a bit crude... don't have the will to rewrite

[proven tendon]

why should you be sorry? Your handwriting is beautiful

[shell current]

Thank you 🥹🥹

[proven tendon]

is your calligraphy teacher kind to you?

you should have more confidence in your calligraphy

[shell current]

Yea she is very supportive, it's just that I haven't done pen calligraphy (especially chinese) for a while. That's why when I saw my work I felt mixed hahaha

[proven tendon]

oh I see

[cloud zealot]

i was wondering how a "native other" can write so beautifully, and then i saw your about me

[bold spindle]

😂

Wish I could take calligraphy classes

[cloud zealot]

you can start writing and get feedback from others here

or you can also join the handwriting server and learn from the masters as well!

[bold spindle]

Tru tru

[rotund moon]

Hvnt taken calligraphy classes before but here i am

Anyone can write

[bold spindle]

!

[cloud zealot]

that being said, we'll wait for your post on this week's handwriting challenge

[bold spindle]

okkk i will, maybe later today

[dreamy blaze]

we like the 々

[silver lynx]

me lazy

[dreamy blaze]

々 good

[proven tendon]

💀

々

[dreamy blaze]

I also did this on a whim, wouldn't call it anything special

[rotund moon]

That pen is uhh

Old

I assume

[dreamy blaze]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[thorn lichen]

it has been a -hot- minute since i've done any chinese- open to and happy to recieve critiques

[uncut compass]

some of yall are so good

freaks me tf out

[silk bear]

Lol same

[normal glade]

這⋯⋯還好吧

[rotund moon]

身

[dim patrol]

I’d say this looks the penmanship of average chinese already — unsystematic, confident and perfectly readable. if you really want to improve it, you might need to use a copybook and start from the basics, either regular script or semi-cursive.

and slow down as much as you can, unless you’re in a hurry ofc

[bold spindle]

I heard everyone should start with regular Kaiti because you get more familiar with the structures this way

[dim patrol]

most, if not all, calligraphy teachers would agree

[fair jungle]

Are you writing with left hand?

[bold spindle]

戳破纸太多次了

[shell current]

I know I'm late but just chipping in my two cents:

Similar to what @dim patrol said this looks like an average chinese handwriting. You would like to ask what your goal is. If your goal is to write presentable and native like handwriting then this is enough. But if you want to go beyond and write even more beautifully then you might need to write slowly.

[lost depot]

You can see my writing progressively deteriorate as I get more tired 🤠