Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den
seriously, try reading the chinese story below aloud... hanyu pinyin provided. :P
《施氏食獅史》
« Shī Shì shí shī shi3 »
石室詩士施氏, 嗜獅, 誓食十獅。
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
氏時時適市視獅。
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
十時, 適十獅適市。
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
是時, 適施氏適市。
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
氏視是十獅, 恃矢勢, 使是十獅逝世。
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shi3 shì, shi3 shì shí shī shìshì.
氏拾是十獅屍, 適石室。
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
石室濕, 氏使侍拭石室。
Shíshì shī, Shì shi3 shì shì shíshì.
石室拭, 氏始試食是十獅。
Shíshì shì, Shì shi3 shì shí shì shí shī.
食時, 始識是十獅, 實十石獅屍。
Shí shí, shi3 shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
試釋是事。
Shì shì shì shì.
hee hee.... funny hor? much more of a tongue-twister... also a brain twister. :P here's the actual meaning (courtesy of wikipedia):
In a stone den was a poet Shi, who loved to eat lions, and decided to eat ten.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
One day at ten o'clock, ten lions just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi just arrived at the market too.
Seeing those ten lions, he killed them with arrows.
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.
makes more sense in english. :P some guy wrote this to prove a point.
