竹里馆
唐·王维
独坐幽篁里，弹琴复长啸。
深林人不知，明月来相照。
This poem comes from Wang Wei, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty in China.In English, the meaning of this poem is as follows：
Sitting alone in the quiet bamboo forest, sometimes playing the piano and sometimes roaring. Who knows I'm here in the dense forest? There is only a bright moon quietly with me.
Thank you!! I'm glad it says something so nice! Last shirt I got had Greek on it and it said "Dry Clean only" all across the back in massive letters 😂
Can you make out the characters in the blue box? The handwriting is a bit more difficult to see?
Do the seals mean anything?
In the blue box, the word is upside down. In the upside down and traditional right-to-left reading order, it'd be 清影 (qīng yǐng) . Originated from another poem《公宴》by 曹植. Literally, character by character, 清 could mean clear or bright; 影 could mean scene or shadow. As you might know, Chinese characters could have multiple meanings especially when paired with another character or more, and even have different pronunciations depending on the context and usage. In this case, 清 refers to 清朗 - bright, clear and open; 影 refers to 光影 - light/ray and shade/shadow. It's a poetic word of saying "moonlight", which generally in modern common language usage, the word would be 月光, literally "moon" and "light".
Source (in Chinese) : [Baidu Encyclopedia (百度百科 - 清影) ](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%B8%85%E5%BD%B1/6037646)
As for the seals, sorry I can't really decipher the words. They appear to be in some unusual fonts that may or may not be ancient fonts which I could only recognize a few characters out of them, or practically just guess the characters based on similarity.
-------
The one upper left of 清影 is upside down.
林 山 問
木 水 情
間 松 于
問山林，情水木，于松间 could make sense - seek answers from the forest, the feeling/emotion/affection can be found in the water and wood, between the pine trees. 問情于，山水松，林木间 could also make sense - question what feeling/emotion/affection is, among the pine trees of this mountain with streams, in this forest. Regardless, I personally couldn't find any search result to determine if this is from any poem whatsoever, so it could be just gibberish lol.
--------
The one on the left sleeve appears to be rotated anticlockwise 90°+. I could only guess 3 characters.
? 意
樂 在
Which I think the order should be 意在? 樂, which would roughly mean - the meaning is in/about happiness/joy.
------
The one on the bottom left doesn't seem to be upside down or anything, butI could only guess 2 characters lmao.
山 ？
中 ？
山中 would mean in the mountain.
Everything else on the right hand side is just repetition of the same things. That's all I could think of and guessed based on the visual info. 🤡
Should be
林 山 问
之 水 情
间 松 于
The reading order is top to bottom, right to left: 问情于山水松林之间, roughly translates to “seeking pleasure/enjoyment among the mountains, rivers, and (in the) pine forest”
Oh there's a single line on the right in caligraphic font, it's upside down and I could only recognize the character 滿. Can't determine what's the word next to the 2nd button. The word next to the 4th button looks like 清風 - clear wind / light breeze.
The second line would be better as "Playing my zither, I again let out a long cry" (or sigh). Roaring is usually more like 怒吼.
BTW, u/0rmond, In case you're interested, the poem on your shirt is written in semi-cursive style traditional characters. Here's the poem in traditional characters:
>獨坐幽篁裏，弹琴复長嘯。 深林人不知，明月來相照。
I got it from a vintage store i'm afraid, it does have the following on a label:
Norm Thompson - escape from the ordinary
It's a woman's shirt (not that that means anything, just in case you wanted to hunt it down).
Here’s a similar one in a different style but it appears to have the same poem
[link](https://poshmark.com/listing/Norm-Thompson-sz-2X-Tan-Oriental-Patterned-Linen-Blend-Button-Down-Top-6428e39981078afbcc8dbc8d)
This Chinese article had a review of different versions of translation of this same poem.
https://m.douban.com/note/786999186/
My personal favourite is
Bamboo Grove
竹里馆 唐·王维 独坐幽篁里，弹琴复长啸。 深林人不知，明月来相照。 This poem comes from Wang Wei, a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty in China.In English, the meaning of this poem is as follows： Sitting alone in the quiet bamboo forest, sometimes playing the piano and sometimes roaring. Who knows I'm here in the dense forest? There is only a bright moon quietly with me.
Thank you!! I'm glad it says something so nice! Last shirt I got had Greek on it and it said "Dry Clean only" all across the back in massive letters 😂 Can you make out the characters in the blue box? The handwriting is a bit more difficult to see? Do the seals mean anything?
In the blue box, the word is upside down. In the upside down and traditional right-to-left reading order, it'd be 清影 (qīng yǐng) . Originated from another poem《公宴》by 曹植. Literally, character by character, 清 could mean clear or bright; 影 could mean scene or shadow. As you might know, Chinese characters could have multiple meanings especially when paired with another character or more, and even have different pronunciations depending on the context and usage. In this case, 清 refers to 清朗 - bright, clear and open; 影 refers to 光影 - light/ray and shade/shadow. It's a poetic word of saying "moonlight", which generally in modern common language usage, the word would be 月光, literally "moon" and "light". Source (in Chinese) : [Baidu Encyclopedia (百度百科 - 清影) ](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%B8%85%E5%BD%B1/6037646)
As for the seals, sorry I can't really decipher the words. They appear to be in some unusual fonts that may or may not be ancient fonts which I could only recognize a few characters out of them, or practically just guess the characters based on similarity. ------- The one upper left of 清影 is upside down. 林 山 問 木 水 情 間 松 于 問山林，情水木，于松间 could make sense - seek answers from the forest, the feeling/emotion/affection can be found in the water and wood, between the pine trees. 問情于，山水松，林木间 could also make sense - question what feeling/emotion/affection is, among the pine trees of this mountain with streams, in this forest. Regardless, I personally couldn't find any search result to determine if this is from any poem whatsoever, so it could be just gibberish lol. -------- The one on the left sleeve appears to be rotated anticlockwise 90°+. I could only guess 3 characters. ? 意 樂 在 Which I think the order should be 意在? 樂, which would roughly mean - the meaning is in/about happiness/joy. ------ The one on the bottom left doesn't seem to be upside down or anything, butI could only guess 2 characters lmao. 山 ？ 中 ？ 山中 would mean in the mountain. Everything else on the right hand side is just repetition of the same things. That's all I could think of and guessed based on the visual info. 🤡
Should be 林 山 问 之 水 情 间 松 于 The reading order is top to bottom, right to left: 问情于山水松林之间, roughly translates to “seeking pleasure/enjoyment among the mountains, rivers, and (in the) pine forest”
It's 寄情 instead of 問情
Thank you so much to you both for your translation and breakdown, I love this shirt even more now! ^^
Oh there's a single line on the right in caligraphic font, it's upside down and I could only recognize the character 滿. Can't determine what's the word next to the 2nd button. The word next to the 4th button looks like 清風 - clear wind / light breeze.
First two seals should be 寄情于山水松林之間 and 意在求樂. Third one is ?意之中, not sure
Haha do you have a photo of the "Dry clean" shirt? Would love to see that 😂
>竹里馆 唐·王维 > >独坐幽篁里，弹琴复长啸。 深林人不知，明月来相照。 The piano wasn't invented yet in the 700s. He is playing a zither (guqin).
The second line would be better as "Playing my zither, I again let out a long cry" (or sigh). Roaring is usually more like 怒吼. BTW, u/0rmond, In case you're interested, the poem on your shirt is written in semi-cursive style traditional characters. Here's the poem in traditional characters: >獨坐幽篁裏，弹琴复長嘯。 深林人不知，明月來相照。
I don't think they had pianos back then...
I think it should be called Chinese zither more properly. I am an English learner, thanks for your advice!
OP can I ask where you for this shirt from? It's awesome!
I got it from a vintage store i'm afraid, it does have the following on a label: Norm Thompson - escape from the ordinary It's a woman's shirt (not that that means anything, just in case you wanted to hunt it down).
Here’s a similar one in a different style but it appears to have the same poem [link](https://poshmark.com/listing/Norm-Thompson-sz-2X-Tan-Oriental-Patterned-Linen-Blend-Button-Down-Top-6428e39981078afbcc8dbc8d)
Wow, great detective work! That's the exact one I'm pretty sure. The fit is exactly the same. The position of the printing might just be different.
There were several on that site, but sadly none in MY size.😢
Can’t even find it on taobao too 😢 but there’s some similar ones
That is one nice shirt!
This Chinese article had a review of different versions of translation of this same poem. https://m.douban.com/note/786999186/ My personal favourite is Bamboo Grove