I asked ChatGPT to “write a poem in Mandarin using Pinyin.” <\/p>\n
Its first response took the form of a sonnet: <\/p>\n
zài fēngláng zhī xiàn,
\ntā yòng bàozhǐ zhànwàng huāliàn.
\nyǒngqì bǎ dōngfēng zài shǒu,
\nzài yùndòng zhōng fàng sīwáng zhī hòu.<\/p>\n
mèngzhōng yǒu tài duō de jìhuà,
\nyǒnggǎn bǎ tāmen dōu chéngshí huà.
\nyǒngyuan bùyào bèi shìjiè suǒ bǎozhòng,
\nzhǐyào huílái bùwàng jiùshì yīzhǒng.<\/p>\n
qīngchūn yǒu tài duō de mèngxiǎng,
\nwǒmen yīqǐ xiǎng zhù zhè yīqiè de dìfāng.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
That one won’t win any prizes, but the result was still much better than the one produced when I asked ChatGPT to make another: <\/p>\n
Qīng sè yǔ tiān, yǔ zhuǎn yǔ duō,
\nCǎo yuǎn shān jǐn, dōu xīng huā tuō.
\nYuè liàng guāng míng, míng yǔ ruò,
\nQíng qíng yǔ hǎo, yǔ zhōng yǔ.<\/p>\n
Shēn tián yǔ sǎng, qíng hǎo yǔ,
\nLiàng yǔ fēn fēn, shǎn chéng yǔ.
\nQīng chuān huáng hé, yǔ yíng cháo,
\nChūn sè xīn róu, xìng fú mǎo.<\/p>\n
Wēn huā yǔ chūn, yǔ xǐ xīn,
\nSān yuán sì jì, yǔ zhōng shuāng.
\nChūn tiān xìng fú, zhuǎn yǔ shuāng,
\nQíng huā yǔ jīng, yǔ yīng huáng.\n<\/p><\/div>\n
That opaque mo no syl la bic mess is infected by the spirit of Literary Sinitic, which Pinyin isn’t designed to handle. <\/p>\n
I’m hopeful that ChatGPT will get trained properly on the rules of Hanyu Pinyin — both the short-form rules of Pinyin<\/a> and the longer (and superior) work of Yin Binyong<\/a> — and so will be able to produce proper Pinyin. But maybe wǒ yǒu tài duō de mèngxiǎng. <\/p>\n As one of my heroes, Hu Shih<\/a>, wrote one hundred years ago, <\/p>\n (你不能做我的詩， NB: I should probably remind everyone, should you wish to include Chinese characters or Pinyin with tone marks in a comment, be sure to encode them<\/a> first or they’ll end up scrambled here. (Not my fault. Sorry.) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I asked ChatGPT to “write a poem in Mandarin using Pinyin.” Its first response took the form of a sonnet: qīngchūn yǒu tài duō de mèngxiǎng, xīwàng yǒu yīgè xiǎng zhù de dìfāng. yīgè rén zài huáshān shàng, tā de … Continue reading
\nzhèngrú wǒ bùnéng zuò nǐ de mèng<\/p>\n
\n正如我不能做你的夢)\n<\/p><\/div>\n