Imagine a time without YouTube videos, without movies, film, and TV shows; before the days of blogs, magazines and newspaper articles. How were people supposed to express their emotions and thoughts on the world, around the world? It wasn’t like people didn’t have feelings before the internet age…
想象一下，在没有YouTube视频、没有电影、电影和电视节目的时代；在博客、杂志和报纸文章的时代之前。 人们应该如何表达他们对世界的情绪和想法？ 这并不是说在互联网时代之前，人们没有感情……
Enter the Renaissance, a time of poetry, songs, and stage plays.
進入文藝復興，一個詩歌、歌曲和舞臺劇的時代。
It is true that all those forms of media above have existed long before the Renaissance period. Dating way back to ancient Greek and peak Roman empire days, stage plays and songs were the main ways people entertained themselves, with poetry being the primary skill to prove your intelligence.
誠然，上述所有形式的媒体早在文艺复兴时期之前就已存在。 可以追溯到古希腊和罗马帝国的鼎盛时期，舞台剧和歌曲是人们娱乐自己的主要方式，诗歌是证明自己智力的主要技能。
However, it was the greatly improved education, better economy, more advanced society and the general standard of living during the Renaissance period which led to poetry, songs and stage plays becomeing most prevalent. It also helps that there were just much more ways for artists to record and save their creations, as opposed to people back in 500 BCE, like Homer, orally presenting his stories, hoping future generations continue to pass it on.
然而，正是文艺复兴时期的教育大幅改善、经济改善、社会更先进和普遍生活水平，导致诗歌、歌曲和舞台剧变得最普遍。 这也有助于艺术家有更多的方式来记录和保存他们的创作，而不是像公元前500年的荷美尔那样，口口述他的故事，希望后代继续传承下去。
One of the most obvious examples of a Renaissance playwright is of course the nightmare of literature students across the globe, William Shakespeare.
文艺复兴时期剧作家最明显的例子之一当然是全球文学学生的噩梦，威廉·莎士比亚。
Widely considered to be “the greatest and most influential writer of all time”. However, some do have to question how this came to be. The fact that Shakespeare was a playwright for the biggest empire ever in the history of the world was definitely not a coincidence when considering how his name has become so popular internationally.
被广泛认为是“有史以来最伟大、最有影响力的作家”。 然而，有些人确实不得不质疑这是怎么来的。 考虑到莎士比亚的名字在国际上如此受欢迎，莎士比亚是世界历史上最大帝国的剧作家，这绝对不是巧合。
Whatever the case, there is no denying that Shakespeare had written some great works in his years. With “Romeo and Juliet” in 1594, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in 1595, “Hamlet” in 1600 and “Macbeth” in 1606 all being some of his classics, my personal favourites and literature students’ archnemeses.
无论如何，不可否认的是，莎士比亚在他的年代写过一些伟大的作品。 1594年的《罗密欧与朱丽叶》、1595年的《仲夏夜之梦》、1600年的《哈姆雷特》和1606年的《麦克白》都是他的一些经典作品，是我个人的最爱，也是文学学生的宿敌。
Staying in England. In front of a desk sometime around 1509, John Donne was writing his tenth holy sonnet, “Holy Sonnet 10: Death be not proud”.
留在英国。 大约在1509年的某个时候，约翰·多恩在办公桌前写下了他的第十首圣四行诗“圣十四行诗10：死亡不要骄傲”。
“Death, thou shalt die.” Some of the greatest words written in poetry history. Directly addressing Death, mocking its personified figure with a brilliant use of paradox; and all the while enlightening audiences that death is not something to fear, it is just another natural occurrence. While as we live, we should enjoy every minute we are given and still have left.
“死亡，你会死的。” 诗歌史上写的一些最伟大的文字。 直接提到死亡，用巧妙的悖論嘲笑其人格化人物；在向觀眾開示死亡不是值得害怕的事情的同時，它只是另一次自然事件。 当我们活着的时候，我们应该享受我们得到的每一分钟，并且仍然剩下的每一分钟。
At the same time, some 8,000 kilometers away. China was entering the later period of its Ming dynasty.
与此同时，大约8000公里远。 中国正在进入明朝的后期。
Although very close timewise to the mess of the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty made China one of the most culturally advanced nations in the world at the time, with historians dubbing the Ming as “One of the major periods for Chinese poetry”.
虽然从时间上讲，明朝与清朝的混乱非常接近，但明朝使中国成为当时世界上文化最先进的国家之一，历史学家将明朝称为“中国诗歌的主要时期之一”。
Following directly behind the famous Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, Ming has the benefit of taking inspiration from its predecessors, while having much better techniques to record and preserve their written poems. With over 1 million pieces of Ming poetry being found to date, the Ming Dynasty stands as the most populous dynasty in terms of Chinese poetry in the lives of the general public.
紧跟在著名的唐、宋、元朝之后，明朝受益于从前辈那里汲取灵感，同时拥有更好的技巧来记录和保存他们所写的诗歌。 迄今为止，明代已发现100多万首明诗，是中国诗歌中公众生活中人口最多的王朝。
Moving east by another 3,000 kilometers, we find ourselves in the island nation of Japan, where their culture was inspired by the Chinese and rivals the Chinese. The famed “5-7-5” structure of Haikus was inseparable from the Samurai lifestyle in Japan at the time.
再向东走3000公里，我们发现自己身处岛国日本，那里的文化受到中国人的启发，与中国人相媲美。 著名的俳句“5-7-5」结构与当时日本的武士生活方式密不可分。
Moving 200 years forward in time and across the Pacific Ocean, we see that poetry is just as popular as ever. With many 1800s American poets rising to the top of the charts.
向前走200年，穿越太平洋，我们看到诗歌一如既往地受欢迎。 许多19世纪的美国诗人登上了排行榜的榜首。
The likes of Edgar Allen Poe and Walt Whitman were prime examples of 19th century American Poetry, ccompanied by their predominant works, “O Captain! My Captain!” and “The Raven”, respectively, and making their mark in the history of poetry.
埃德加·爱伦·坡和沃尔特·惠特曼等人是19世纪美国诗歌的典型例子，伴随着他们的主要作品“哦，船长！ 我的队长！” 分别和《乌鸦》，并在诗歌史上留下印记。
Now, bringing ourselves back to the 21st century. Let’s ask ourselves this; When was the last time you saw anyone write and publish a poem?
现在，让我们回到21世纪。 让我们问问自己这个问题；你上一次看到有人写和发表诗是什么时候？
As prevalent as poetry was in the Renaissance days, they just aren’t as popular as they once were. Their primetime has passed, and time was as unforgiving to this form of media as it was to anything else on this planet. Like Nokia phones, poetry is about to fade away into history, to become something that humans simply had once done.
诗歌在文艺复兴时期很流行，但它们没有以前那么受欢迎了。 他们的黄金时段已经过去，时间对这种形式的媒体就像对这个星球上的任何东西一样无情。 就像诺基亚手机一样，诗歌即将消失在历史中，成为人类曾经做过的事情。
The same cannot be said for poetry’s partners in crime. Songs are as popular as ever and the music industry is more advanced than ever.
诗歌的犯罪伙伴也不能这么说。 歌曲一如既往地受欢迎，音乐行业也比以往任何时候都更先进。
Plays are a curious case; people are still writing plays, but they definitely aren’t what they used to be. However, some can argue that musicals and modern films are just improved versions of the classical plays. In that case, the play has adapted itself in a way poetry couldn’t do, it has evolved to flow with the advancement of technology. While the practice of writing poetry is just slowly being washed away in the tides of time.
戏剧是一个奇怪的案例；人们仍在写戏剧，但它们肯定不像以前那样了。 然而，有些人可能会争辩说，音乐剧和现代电影只是古典戏剧的改进版本。 在这种情况下，该剧以诗歌无法做到的方式适应了自己，它随着技术的进步而演变。 而写诗的做法正在慢慢被时间的潮汐冲走。
With all that said though, it is unfair to not acknowledge how many songs, more specifically the lyrics of those songs are essentially a form of poetry.
话雖如此，不承认有多少歌曲是不公平的，更具体地说，这些歌曲的歌詞本質上是一種詩歌形式。
Therefore, modern songs today are continuing to carry on the legacy of poems to this day.
因此，今天的现代歌曲延续了诗歌的遗产，直到今天。
Well, what can we as the public do? Start by writing some poems! It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad. Just have fun with it. At the end of the day, poetry is another form of human culture, a part of our culture that we as human beings cannot afford to lose.
好吧，作为公众，我们能做什么？ 从写一些诗开始！ 不管是好是坏都无所谓。 享受它吧。 归根结底，诗歌是人类文化的另一种形式，是我们文化的一部分，我们人类不能失去它。
Hey, and who knows, maybe years down the line the poem you wrote one insignificant afternoon turns out to be the new greatest nightmare of literature students across the world.
嘿，谁知道呢，也许几年后，你在一个微不足道的下午写的诗变成了全世界文学学生最大的新噩梦。
