聯合翻譯有限公司/聯合翻譯社

聯合翻譯 引用自 http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2014/08/09/2003596962

At 103 Lee Liu Su is still bright-eyed and perky-eared, and many professors and university students concede inferiority as verses of antiquity flow from her lips. Lee garnered immense admiration from her audience when she recited, without the slightest bit of hesitation, Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi’s “Swallow song for Liu the elder” in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) at the Dounan Township Office’s auditorium on Aug. 3.

Lee was born in 1911 in Gukeng Township’s present-day Yongguang Village — formerly called Kantoucuo Village. She belonged to Yong Guang Elementary School’s sixth graduating class, which at the time was also called Kantoucuo Elementary School. Although able to speak fluent Japanese after graduating, having attended elementary school during Japanese colonial rule, Lee could still only read a limited number of Chinese characters. At the age of 17, she was married off to Dounan Township, where her father-in-law Lee Yun-tsong taught her to read Chinese characters.

Lee Shao-chu, Lee’s daughter, says that her grandfather appreciated literature and was well-versed in poetry. Lee first fell in love with poetry on her third day of marriage, when her father-in-law began teaching her Chinese characters, poetry from the Tang Dynasty and ancient verses. It seems like 80-odd years have passed in the blink of an eye. Lee read books and recited poems every day until she turned 100 and her eyesight began rapidly deteriorating. After many admonishments from her family, Lee gradually decreased the time she spent reading.

Lee demurely says that since she is getting on in years, she often remembers the title of a poem but forgets the first line when trying to recite it, so she either has to take a moment or ask someone standing next to her to remind her. Because she studied with her father-in-law for five years when she was young, she managed to memorize all 300 of the classic Tang poems in Taiwanese so well that she could actually recite them backwards and forwards.