文章 Wen Zhang 古月照今塵 Gu yue zhao jin chen Ancient moon shines on modern dust： lyrics, pinyin, English translation, Wen Zhang background information, biography, and quotes about history

文章
Wen Zhang

古月照今塵
Gu3 yue4 zhao4 jin1 chen2
Ancient moon shines on modern dust

古(old/ancient)月(moon)照(shine on)今(modern/today’s)塵 (dust)

一部春秋史
yi2 bu4 chun1 qiu1 shi3
One set of Spring and Autumn Annals ( chronicle of Lu State (722-481 BC))

一(one)部(a set of)春秋史 (春Spring 秋Autumn 史 history, 春秋史 means chronicle of Lu State and it is named Spring and Autumn Annals)

千年孤臣淚
Qian1 nian2 gu1 chen2 lei4
Thousand years of lonely state official’s tears

千(thousand)年(year)孤(lonely)臣(state official or subject in dynastic China)淚(tears)

成敗難長久
cheng2 bai4 nan2 chang2 jiu3
Success or failure can’t last forever

成(success)敗(failure)難(hard to)長(lengthy)久(long)

興亡在轉瞬間
xing1 wang2 zai4 zhuan3 shun4 jian1
prosper or diminish happens in a blink of eyes

興(prosper)亡(diminish)在(preposition/in, at)轉(change)瞬(blink of eye)間(between)

總在茶餘後
zong3 zai4 cha2 yu2 hou4
Always after finishing drinking the tea

總(always)在(preposition)茶(tea)餘(after / remaining)後(afterwards)

供於後人說
gong4 yu2 hou4 ren2 shuo1
Was provided as the chatting topic

供(offer)於(to)後(latter)人(people)說(say/talk)

多少辛酸話因果
duo1 shao3 xin1 suan1 hua4 yin1 guo3
How many sadness fills (in heart) when talked about the karma

多少(how many)辛(bitter)酸(sour)話(talk about)因果 (karma)

百戰舊河山
bai3 zhan4 jiu4 he2 shan1
The hundred battles aged the river and the mountain

百(hundred)戰(battles)舊( to get old)河(river)山(mountain)

古來功難全
gu3 lai2 gong1 nan2 quan2
Since ancient time, meritorious deed has been hard to complete

古(old/ancient)來(ever since)功(meritorious deed)難(hard to)全(complete)

江山幾局殘
Jian1 shan1 ji3 ju2 can2
The rivers and mountains, after how many runs of game got ruined

江(river)山(mountain)幾(how many)局(classifier for games)殘(to ruin)

荒城重拾何年
huang1 cheng2 chong2 shi2 he2 nian2
The ruined city when can be restored

荒(ruined)城(city)重(again)拾(tidy up)何(which)年 (year)

文章寫不盡
wen2 zhang1 xie3 bu2 jin4
The literary work can not be finished

文章(literary work/articles)寫(write)不(not able to)盡(finish)

幽幽滄桑史
you1 you1 cang1 sang1 shi3
This hidden historic annal of great changes

幽幽(remote / hidden away)滄桑(great changes / abbr. of 沧海桑田 it. the blue sea turned into mulberry fields (idiom) / fig. the transformations of the world)史(history)

悲歡歲月盡無情
bei1 huan1 sui4 yue4 jin4 wu2 qing2
The sorrow and joy of years all were cruel

悲(sad)歡(happy)歲(year)月(month)盡(completely)無(no)情(feelings)

長江長千里
Chang2 jiang1 chang2 qian1 li3
The Yangtze River flows thousand miles

長江(長long江river, 長江 the Yangtze River)長(long)千(thousand)里(mile)

黃河水不停
Huang2 He2 shui3 bu4 ting2
the Yellow River’s water keeps running

黃(yellow)河(river)水(water)不(not)停(stop)

江山依舊人事已非
jiang1 shan1 yi1 jiu4 ran2 shi4 quan2 fei1
The rivers and mountains are the same as old day’s, but the people and the events have changed

江(river)山(mountain)依舊(as before / still )人(human)事(things)已(already)非(not)

只剩古月照今塵
zhi3 sheng4 gu3 yue4 zhao4 jin1 chen2
only left the ancient moon shines upon the modern dust

只(only)剩(left)古(old)月(moon)照(shine on)今(today)塵(dust)

莫負古聖賢
mo4 fu4 gu3 sheng4 xian2
don’t disappoint the ancient sages and virtuous people

莫(don’t)負(disappoint)古(old)聖(saints)賢(virtuous/wise)

效历朝英雄
xiao4 li4 chao2 ying1 xiong2
To imitate the heroes in the past dynasties

效(imitate)历(each/every)朝(dynasty)英雄(hero)

再造一個輝煌的漢疆和唐土
zai4 zhao4 yi2 ge5 hui1 huang2 de5 han4 jiang1 he2 tang2 tu3
To rebuild a splendid and glorious Han (the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) )boundary and Tang (Tang dynasty (618-907)) land

再(again)造(create)一(one)個(measure word)輝煌(splendid)的(connecting particle)漢(Han)疆(territory)和(and)唐(Tang)土(land)

Translated by Shu

Singer — Wen zhang 文章 background info:

Wen Zhang 文章, whose real name is Huang Wen Zhang 黄文章, used his first name as stage name. Wen Zhang was an active Taiwan singer in the 1980s. He is an Indonesian Chinese, and his ancestors came from Guangdong, China.
Wen Zhang, when he was 8-year-old, he left Indonesia and went to Malaysia to study in an elementary school there; he later went to United States for his high school years, and then studied at an University in Canada. After graduation, he went to Japan for two years. Then he was back to Singapore to visit his parents in 1983, and met someone from EMI music company, and was recommended to Taiwan EMI (EMI Arts). Later he became very active in Taiwan’s music field. After the 1990s, he gradually moved the focus of his singing career to mainland China.

Quotes of history:
History is a cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories of man. ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday. ~Pearl Buck

History is philosophy teaching by examples. ~Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War

People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them. ~James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

The great eventful Present hides the Past; but through the din
Of its loud life hints and echoes from the life behind steal in.
~John Greenleaf Whittier

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters. ~African Proverb

The memories of men are too frail a thread to hang history from. ~John Still, The Jungle Tide

All the ancient histories, as one of our wits say, are just fables that have been agreed upon. ~Voltaire, Jeannot et Colin

Professor Johnston often said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything. You were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree. ~Michael Crichton, Timeline

We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn’t think it was fair in the history books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre. ~Dick Gregory

History is herstory, too. ~Author Unknown

A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the whole be false. ~Thomas Babington Macaulay

History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. ~Winston Churchill

History is a mighty dramos, enacted upon the theatre of times, with suns for lamps and eternity for a background. ~Thomas Carlyle

History is a novel for which the people is the author. ~Alfred de Vigny, Réflexions sur la Vérité dans l’Art

History is a kind of introduction to more interesting people than we can possibly meet in our restricted lives; let us not neglect the opportunity. ~Dexter Perkins

History was a trash bag of random coincidences torn open in a wind. Surely, Watt with his steam engine, Faraday with his electric motor, and Edison with his incandescent light bulb did not have it as their goal to contribute to a fuel shortage some day that would place their countries at the mercy of Arab oil. ~Joseph Heller, Good as Gold

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all: the conscientious historian will correct these defects. ~Herodotus, The History of Herodotus

History: gossip well told. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary

History is a symphony of echoes heard and unheard. It is a poem with events as verses. ~Charles Angoff

If one could make alive again for other people some cobwebbed skein of old dead intrigues and breathe breath and character into dead names and stiff portraits. That is history to me! ~George Macaulay Trevelyan

The history of the world is the record of a man in quest of his daily bread and butter. ~Hendrik Wilhelm van Loon, The Story of Mankind

Historians are gossips who tease the dead. ~Voltaire, Scribbling Books

History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up. ~Voltaire

We are the prisoners of history. Or are we? ~Robert Penn Warren, Segregation

History never looks like history when you are living through it. ~John W. Gardner

Legend: A lie that has attained the dignity of age. ~H.L. Mencken

God cannot alter the past, though historians can. ~Samuel Butler, “Prose Observations”

History is the sum total of the things that could have been avoided. ~Konrad Adenauer

Oh, God. The Sixties are coming back. Well I’ve got a 12-gauge double-barreled duck gun chambered for three-inch Magnum shells. And – speaking strictly for this retired hippie and former pinko beatnik – if the Sixties head my way, they won’t get past the porch steps. They will be history. Which, for chrissakes, is what they’re supposed to be. ~P.J. O’Rourke

The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice. ~Mark Twain, Following the Equator

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. ~Plato, Ion

History is a vast early warning system. ~Norman Cousins

Historian: an unsuccessful novelist. ~H.L. Mencken

Historian: A broad-gauge gossip. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

History is a great dust heap. ~Thomas Carlyle, Obiter Dicta

These quotes come from:
http://www.quotegarden.com/history.html