When children English poems encounter Chinese quatrains

I always enjoy the children poems written by Kenn Nesbitt , especially when the author read them using the funny tone on Youtube. And one of the reasons why I love them so much is I find every poem of his is the just same as Chinese quatrains in rhyme.

Here is an example:

When the teacher isn't looking

When the teacher’s back is turned,
we never scream and shout. (au)
Never do we drop our books
and try to freak her out. (au)

No one throws a pencil
at the ceiling of the class. (a:s)
No one tries to hit the fire alarm
and break the glass. (a:s)

We don’t cough in unison
and loudly clear our throats. (ts)
No one’s shooting paper wads
or passing little notes. (ts)

She must think we’re so polite.
We never make a peep. (i:p)
Really, though, it’s just because
we all go right to sleep. (i:p)

— Kenn Nesbitt
source

We can notice this poem includes 4 quatrains all together. In each quatrain there is a rhyming. We see, "shout" rhymes with "out"; "throats" rhymes "notes" and "peep" rhymes "sleep".

Now let's compare and enjoy a Chinese quatrain named "On the stork tower".

登鹳雀楼
白日依山尽，
黄河入海流。(iu）
欲穷千里目，
更上一层楼。(ou)
source

There are different English translations about it online, and here I just chose 2 versions for reference.

One version is rather simple and its rhyme is similar to its original Chinese version. Let's see: 流iu rhymes with 楼ou; sea rhymes with see.

The bright sun falls behind the mountains;

The Yellow River flows to the sea. (i:)

To see farther into the distance.

Step one story higher, you will see. (i:)

Another English version doesn't rhyme, but it can help understand this famous ancient Chinese poem written by a poet in Tang dynasty well.

The sunset is beautiful, but now it's falling down the endless mountains.

The Yellow River runs on and on, and it will eventually fall into the sea.

What a beautiful view, if you want to see farther

Then please go up to a higher castle.

If you love reading more ancient Chinese quatrains or try to learn Chinese, please don't forget to let me know down in the comments! I would like to share a lot of beautiful ancient Chinese poems with you. I think it is always a good way to fall in love with Chinese lauguage/culture by enjoying ancient Chinese quatrains with the matching paintings, just like how I like child English poems by Kenn Nesbitt, so simple but so interesting!