Happy New Year. I had a thought while half-asleep on the plane during my travels in China this month.
Why can we write haikus in English, but there's no equivalent for forms of poetry from other countries and traditions? Or maybe there are, but at the very least I've never heard of any.
China has a few traditional forms of poetry, but there is one that is super common during the New Year season - the duilian, or the couplet - which you see pasted on either side of doors in red paper. The form is this:
Two lines with equal numbers of words (or syllables) that have a parallel structure. One line of four words (or syllables) that form some kind of conclusion. In Chinese, one character is one syllable. This doesn't directly translate to English.
Here's an attempt from me :)
Work hard, light a spark in the world
Love well, find the peace in your heart
Joy in all things
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