Rough Translations
 A pan on the table, there's a bottle in the pan: bang, bang, bang.
Is it the bottle hitting the pan or the pan hitting the bottle?- The cowboy longs for Miss Liu (surname). Miss Liu pines for the cowboy. The cowboy longs for Miss Liu year in, year out. Miss Liu pines for the cowboy for ever and ever.
- An old man, holding (a bowl of) soup, climbed up a tower. The soup was hot. The tower (steps) slippery; (so) the soup got spilt (and) the soup scalded the tower (steps).
- On the wall hangs a drum, on which a tiger is painted.
The tiger clawed a hole into the drum.
Taking a piece of cloth to repair it,
I didn’t know whether the cloth was mending the drum or the cloth was mending the tiger.
- Mother is riding a horse. The horse moves slowly. Mother chides the horse.
- Niuniu (Kid's nickname) drives an ox, but the ox is too stubborn to move, so he pinches it.
- Red phoenix, pink phoenix, pink-red phoenix.
- The teacher is 44, isn't (s)he?
- On a green mountain grows a vine. Under the vine there hangs a copper bell. When the wind blows, the vine moves, and so does the bell. When the wind stops, the vine stops, and the bell stops too.
- A bamboo pole is long, and a bench is wide. The bamboo pole was bound to the bench. The bench did not allow the pole to be bound to it, but the pole insisted on being bound to the bench.
- When eating grapes don't spit out the skin,
when not eating grapes spit out the skin.
- 4 is 4, 10 is 10, 14 is 14, 40 is 40, 44 stone lions are dead.
- There's a pear on the tree; mud on the ground. The wind blows the pears; the pears fall to the ground. The pears roll in the mud; the mud sticks to the pears.
- The Useful Lady of the West was 44 years old at the time of her death.
- Is the teacher a 44-year-old?
- If you know, just say you know. If you don't know, just say you don't know. You shouldn't know and say you don't know. And you shouldn't NOT know and say you DO know. You know?
- The mute has a trumpet.
The lama has a (Tibetan) fish.
The mute wants the lama's fish.
The lama wants the mute's trumpet.
The mute gave the lama his trumpet.
The lama gave the mute his fish.
The mute has a fish.
The lama has a trumpet.
- Red phoenix, yellow phoenix, pink phoenix, pink phoenix fly
- 40 IS 40, 40 IS NOT 14, 14 IS NOT 40, 14 IS 14.
- The tongue twister is about shoulder pole and a wooden stool ...
- It is about mouth and feet
- In front of the village there is a Yan Yuanyan.
Behind the village there is a Yan Yanyuan.
Don't know if Yan Yuanyan's eyes are rounder
or Yan Yanyuan's eyes are rounder.
- Black chemical fertilizer can turn gray,
Gray chemical fertilizer can turn black;
Black chemical fertilizer may evaporate when it turns gray,
Gray chemical fertilizer may turn black when it evaporates.
- Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Room.
Mr. Shi, the poet from a stone room, likes to eat lions. He promises solemnly, that he will eat ten lions. Regularly he goes to the market to look at the lions. ...
- Eat grapes throw out their skins, don't eat grapes don't throw out their skins.
Eat grapes don't throw out their skins, don't eat grapes throw out their skins.
- The black butterfly flies, the gray butterfly flies, after the black butterfly flies, the gray butterfly flies.
- From the north comes a dumb (person), carrying a trumpet at his waist.
From the south comes a monk, holding a sole (fish) in his hand.
The sole holding monk wants to trade his sole against the trumpet carrying dumb's trumpet. The trumpet carrying dumb doesn't want to trade his trumpet against the sole holding monk's sole. Not only does the trumpet carrying dumb hit the sole holding monk with his
trumpet, but also the sole holding monk hits the trumpet carrying dumb with his sole. The monk goes home and stews the sole. The dumb (plays) didi da da (on) the trumpet.
Thanks
Pierre Abbat, Alexander Bittner, Malcolm Butler, Yeung Cecilia, Janie Chan, Charles ‘Charlie' Chu, Todd Cornell, Nathan Faries, Jan Feng, Daniel Foster, Wai Keet Hew, Frank Huang, Paul Jackson, Gregor Kneussel, Zhijun Kou, Wolf Kozel, Xu Zeng Lai, David Leip, Jia En Low, Amber Martin, Carl Masthay, Robert Newman, Roland Parijs, William Renner, He Ru, Zhongyuan (Jonny) Shi, Jörg Sziegat, Karel F. Treebus, Washington Wong, Lilian Yan, Angelika Yeh, Zhiqian Yuan, Patrick Zein, Vincent Zettl, Wen Zhai, Noxie Zheng, Allen Kairen Zhuang
Links
Ethnologue, Languages of the World:
Chinese | Mandarin Chinese
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