Spring Dawn

So the last post (beside the "history of translations" one) was a song titled "a flower petal", so I thought I'd link it to «Do you know how many flowers have fallen», which is the ending line of the Chinese poem we're dealing with today. The poem is called "春晓 | Chūn Xiǎo | Spring Dawn", and is by the poet 孟浩然 | Mèng Hàorán.
I made a video about it, with some history. That history was at best imprecise and at worst outright wrong. I haven't rewatched it, but the convincement that the Arabic was from Jan/Feb 2013 was deep-seated in me and is totally wrong, so to avoid incorrectness I will detail the history here.
But first, speaking of Arabic, let me address the issue of transliteration. The scheme I use below is my own. In particular, I differ from the "standard" transliteration in the following respects:

• I use ŕ/ṙ/ṛ (this has varied over the various versions, I'll try to make the 2023-and-later transliterations use ŕ consistently) for the left-quote transliterating ŕayn (ع), because using left-quote and right-quote for two different sounds dounds like complete madness to me, and because the sound of ŕayn sounds like a particular kind of "r moscia" (nonstandard pronunciation of the Italian phoneme /r/);
• I prefer using th and dh to ṯ and ḏ for the dental fricatives (ث and ذ), because it is quicker to type and easier to read;
• I use gh for ghayn (غ), for similar reasongs to th and dh;
• I guess I did not have to think about what to do with kha (خ), but either kh or x are fine: x is IPA, kh is just as easy to type and read; standard probably has ḵ, which I doff for the same reasongs as ṯ and ḏ;
• I doffed š for šin in favor of sh (again, inconsistency may be a thing), for the same reasons;
• Should ta-ha, dal-ha, kaf-ha, or sin-ha ever occur, to avoid confusion with tha, dhal, kha, and shin, I'd use t.h, d.h, k.h, and s.h respectively;

It would seem I met the poem, i.e. found it on Gan Wikipedia, between 10/3 and 17/3 (sessions 118 and 119 resp.) in 2013. The reason for the Arabic is that I had a potential corrector in Francesco Rameh, whom I appear to only have met at the 2013 meeting, since I only went to the previous edition of the Rimini meeting for one day and the diary doesn't mention Rameh at all. In fact, the 24/9/13 diary says I will take up Arabic «colla scusa di costui» (with him as an excuse), using the future, meaning 24/9 is a lower bound on the making of the Arabic translation). Given that the poetic English translation is dated to «just before the publishing of the video» by the old version of this post. This would put the translation before 31/5, since I'm pretty sure the video was shot within then.
Below you find a 3-column table with the Chinese text, the Pinyin for that text, and a word-for-word English translation to show you why it is impossible to keep the meter (4 lines of 5 syllables each) in English, let alone in Arabic.

The original text

春晓 春眠不觉晓, 处处闻啼鸟; 夜来风雨声, 花落知多少?

Chūn Xiǎo Chūn mián bù jué xiǎo, Chùchù wén tí niǎo; Yè lái (*) fēng yǔ shēng, Huā luò zhī duõshǎo?

Spring Dawn Spring sleep not feel dawn, Place-place hear tweet bird; Night come wind rain sound, Flower fall know many-few?

Next, the English verse translation, which double the syllables per line (and this is about as close as I can get to keeping the meter). «It dates to just before the posting of the video», said the post. So, this thing is not in the self-chat or in SS from 23/5 or later up to the shooting date of the vid which is 1/6. Thus, maybe it was just made in the night or in the morning and written down somewhere for the vid, if at all, and otherwise directly into the video description. I then changed l. 2 from left to right on 21/3/24 at 9:06 and l. 3 from left to right on 22/3/24 at 14:06.

English

If in spring you sleep and do not feel dawn, With birds a-singing everywhere you go; Then, when night comes with sound of wind and rain, Do you know just how many flowers fell?

If in spring you sleep and do not feel dawn, When birdsongs can be heard in any place, And then night comes with sounds of stormy winds, Do you know just how many flowers fell?

And finally, the Arabic translation. This is prose but with cantilation, as illustrated by the video. It is a messy subject, with most of the history recorded in a series of Facebook posts directed at Rameh.

1. The first translation post dates back to 29/9/13 19:38, and I'd assume the translation was done pretty close to that time; it contains no English, but the Chinese, the Pinyin, the Arabic, a letter-by-letter transliteration, a full transliteration, a literal English version of the Chinese, and some stuff for Rameh (basically an explanation of the transliteration scheme); I included all the Arabic stuff and the English in the below ``Original'' tab;
2. This version is also the first record of this translation in a file, precisely in session 155 from 30/9/13, the previous one being from 27/9; well, OK, the file forgets "nimta wa" in l. 1; the second post, from 1/10/13 19:53, appears to be a repost, only updating the Pinyin to have "Chūn mián" instead of "Chūn miān" in l. 1; the selfsame post is again reposted on 13/10/13 at 16:02, and again on 25/8/14 at 15:11;
3. However, there are comments on this post, presumably from when I thought back to this on my Holy Land pilgrimage and reworked it to Classical Arabic (with mistakes, as we shall see); the first such comment is from 2/1/16, and seems to have been last edited at 12:41; with a long edit history, it gives the transliteration, where:
   
   1. L. 1 is always «'iđā fī al-rabīŕi nimta wa lima tašaŕuru al-fajru,»;
   2. L. 2 starts out as «Ŕindamā fī kull makān tasmaŕu 'aţyāran muŕannīna yuģannūni,», then in the second edit it gains «'anna» before «muŕannīna»; the fifth and last version drop «muŕannīna» and shift «'anna» before «'aṭyāran», adding an «al-» between the two, thus ending up with «Ŕindamā fī kull makān tasmaŕu 'anna al-'aţyāran yuģannūni,»;
   3. The second edit starts the third line with «Wa al-layla 'atayta, wa ar-rīh' wa», which remains constant through out the edits; the third one adds «al-maţar şawwattū,» to that, completing a constant third line;
   4. The fourth edit gives l. 4 as «Hal tataŕarrafu kam faqadta?», and the fifth edit doesn't touch that;
4. The second comment is from the same day, but at 14:14; this gives… a nonconstant amount of stuff; basically, it's the stuff from the 2016 version below, where the first edit has the three, the second edit adds «------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------» between the two Arabics and the romanization, and the final version removes the romanization; this is probably because bidirectionality nonsense makes the punctuation appear at the start of lines rather than the end; this is also probably the reason for the third comment, still 2/1/16 but at 14:26, which has just the romanization, l. 2 getting its final semicolon in place of the earlier comma; note the mistransliteration of تَشْعُرْ (tašŕur) as tašaŕuru in l. 1, and the weird ligature in المَطَرْ in l. 3, which almost completely hides the mīm;
5. The last post is from 4/1/16 15:15; it is an update to the previous posts, featuring the same things, with titles, plus the vocalized Arabic; I will include it as the 2016b version, but let me list the differences:
   
   1. In l. 1, تشعر tašaṛuru becomes شعر šaṛara; also, لِمَ, previously lam, becomes lima;
   2. In l. 2, أن الأطير يغنون tasmaṛu 'anna aṭ-ṭuyūra yuġannūna becomes أن الأطير يغني 'anna aṭ-ṭuyūra yuġannī; note how the original version ended this with a semicolon while the 2016 versions have a comma;
   3. In l. 3, صويوا ṣawwatū becomes صوت ṣawwata;
   Note also the mistransliterated شْعَرَ, which should be šŕara but is rendered as šaŕara, the weird spelling of ī in يُغَنِّي yuġannī with the a-diacritic followed by y, and the typo of صَوّّتَ which has two shaddas on the w; I now want to quote the ``corrections'' section of this post, as well as the comments below it:
   
   1. Con cose e oggetti il verbo sempre al singolare, quindi non aṭ-ṭuyūra yuġannūna (الطُيُورَ يُغَنُّونَ) ma aṭ-ṭuyūra yuǵannī (الطُيُورَ يُغَنِّي), e non ar-rīḥ wa al-maṭar ṣawwattū (الرِيح وَ المَطَار صَوَّتُّو) ma [blabla] ṣawwata (صَوَّتَ). Giusto? Perché mi dicevi tuġannī (تُغَنِّي) che è femminile? Gli uccelli (aṭ-ṭuyūra) sono maschili no?
   2. Quel tašaṛuru (تَشَعُرُ) è coordinato con nimta (نِمْتَ), che è passato perché è in una protasi retta da 'iðā (إِذَا), "se", dove il verbo va al passato con significato di presente, quindi anche tašaṛuru (تَشَعُرُ) va al passato come šaṛara (شَعَرَ). Giusto?
   3. Non ar-rīḥ ma ar-rīḥu (الرِيح -> الرِيحُ). (4/1/16 16:00);
   4. E analogamente al-maṭaru (المَتَرُ). (4/1/16 16:01);
6. Then we have the blog post and video, which should match; except not; so we have the video version, and the blog original version below; since I already made the comparison, here are the differences between blog original and last post;
   
   1. L. 1 has شعر šaŕara in 9 but the old تشعر tašŕuru on the blog;
   2. 9 has الأطير, which is mistransliterated to aṭ-ṭuyūra while it is… I think al-aṭyar, a typo for al-'aṭyār(u);
   3. Post has تغني tughannī while 9 has يغني yughannī, not sure why; it's a gender change, but apparently I was perplexed at feminine tughannī; I think I've cleared that up below;
   4. Blog has ايذن، عندما الليلت 'īdhan, ŕindamā 'al-laylu while 9 has و الليل Wa al-layl; this is an interpretation change for the Chinese, discussed in the translation mistakes section below; also, layl vs. laylu is a case ending, but the post's Arabic actually writes al-laylatu, misspelling it, and that's a different noun, see below;
   5. Blog has إوراك وكعوا kam 'awrāqun waqaŕū while 9 has فقدت faqadta, again a change of interpretation of the Chinese, for which see the mistakes section below; quoting the index, this mistranslation was "fixed on 31/5/17 going from «kam faqadta» to «kam zuhūrun waqa'ū» (21:26), then «waqařū» (21:27), then the final version at 21:37, as per self-chat";
   As for comparing Blog original (BO) and video (V), the transliterations differ as follows:
   
   1. V has «lima tashaŕuru 'al-fajri» where BO has «lam tashŕuru 'al-fajra»;
   2. V has «ṭughannī» where BO has «tughannī»;
   3. V has «'al-laylatu» where BO «'al-laylu»;
   All three of these have been discussed as mistakes, I'm pretty sure; as for the Arabic spellings, aside from what reflects the above three differences, the biggest thing is that V is fully vocalized and BO is fully unvocalized; I'll leave the comparison of these to the super-accurate transliterations below (V on the left, BO on the right), where rings mean sukūns in the vocalized V, and unmarked vowels in the unvocalized BO; the absence of doubled consonants on the right is a reflection of the absence of shaddas, which mark double consonants;
   
   

   'idhā fī 'år-rabīŕi nimta wa-lima tashaŕuru 'ål-fajri, Ŕin̊damā fī kull makān̊ tas̊maŕu 'anna 'åṭ-ṭuyūra ṭughannī, 'īdhan̊, ŕin̊damā 'ål-laylatun 'atāẙ wa 'år-rīḥu wa Hal tataŕarrafu kam̊ 'åẘrākun waqaŕū'?    ['ål-maṭaru ṣawwata,

   'ı̊dhā̊ fī̊ 'år-råbī̊ŕı̊ nı̊mtå wå låm tåshŕůrů 'ål-fåjrå, Ŕı̊ndåmā̃ fī̃ kůll måkā̃n tåsmåŕů 'ånå 'åṭ-ṭůyū̃rå tůghånī̊, 'ī̊dhån, ŕı̊ndåmā̃ 'ål-låylåtů 'åtā̊ẙ wå 'år-rī̊ḥu wå Hål tåtåŕåråfů kåm 'åwrā̊kůn wåqåŕū̊'?    ['ål-måṭårů ṣåwåtå,

7. And now let's knock some sense into this mess, shall we? The grammar in this thing is quite dreadful; let's see all the mistakes, which I'm fixing on 19/4/23 at 14:09-15:01:
   
   1. Already in the title 'al-fajri fī 'ar-rabīṙi we have a case error: fajri is genitive, and we definitely want a nominative fajru; it seems fī takes the genitive, so fī ar-rabīŕi is correct, though apparently it would normally be contracted to fī-r-rabīŕi;
   2. While لم can be read both lam and lima, the negation is lam, and lima means "why";
   3. For some weird reason, if-clauses don't take the present, but the past; thus, tašṛuru, while morphologically correct (but tašaṛuru is not), is syntactically incoorect in l. 1; then again, šaṛara, while past, is third person, and we want a second person (not he, but thou); hence, šaṛarta; ṛindamā-clauses, however, do not take a past, so tasmaṛu is correct in l. 2;
   4. One would assume šaṛara takes an accusative for the object "dawn", thus not fajri (genitive again! What's with me and these genitives?), but fajra; however, Google suggests šaṛara should not be used transitively, but be given a prepositional phrase with bi, so bi al-fajri, or bi-l-fajri;
   5. I don't know where I got my fī kull makān when Wiktionary translates "everywhere" as fī kulli makānin;
   6. The singing birds are such a mess; so, number one, nominative, not accusative: aṭ-ṭuyūru, not -ūra; number two, aṭ-ṭuyūra appears to be feminine collective, which is probably why Rameh suggested the feminine singular tuġannī in place of my masculine plural yuġannūna; number three, why not go with the masculine al-'atyāru, which is probably where I was going with the mistransliterated thing in the last post (see above)? Let's do that, and then I guess still singular verb yuġannī;
   7. The wannabe 'īdhan ايذن of l. 3 should be 'idhan "then"; as it is, it means "listen thou male!";
   8. Al-laylatu is from layla, both of which are spelled with tā marbūtah, whereas al-laylu is from layl; I'm not quite clear on the difference between the two; from Googling, it seems layla is a single night, and with al- it becomes "tonight", while layl is more generically night, dark hours; so in this case, we definitely want al-laylu; also, al-laylatu is feminine, so instead of أَتَى 'atā it should take أَتَتْ‎ 'atāt;
   9. I'm assuming mixed-gender groups of nouns take masculine adjectives and verbs, like in Italian, otherwise ṣawwata would have to become ṣawwatat;
   10. Tataṛarrafu is morphologically correct, and also syntactically, but the verb taṛarrafa means "to meet, to become acquainted" or "to recognize", not the "to know" we want; the verb we want is thus ṛarafa, and the form we need is taṛrifu;
   11. 'awrākun has no q, but a k, as the Arabic gives even on the blog;
   12. Conversely, waqaṛū does have a q, and is misspelled in the Arabic.

There's actually two more things (thanks final remarks for the first one):

1. At 17:00 on 19/4/23, I realized 'atā and ṣawwata do NOT need to be past tense in l. 3, because ŕindamā doesn't force the past.
2. At 14:29 on 6/5/23 I realize 'awrāqun or however it's spelled does NOT mean flowers, so I change it to zuhūrun.

The Arabic spelling below (for the "blog original", and consequently most of the "2023 fix" versions) is just dropping all vowels and putting in random hamzas for glottal stops, so if you see any mistake, please point it out in comments, and I will correct it. So here goes.
«While doing the checkup, I realized that I had a couple of transliteration errors in the video. Here is the original transliteration. I also fixed the spelling: here is what it was originally. I only checked the final translation, not the stuff below». You can see below if these errors explain the changes from video to blog original.

• 2013 original
• 2016
• 2016b
• Video
• Blog original
• 2023 fix

Arabic

الفجر في الربيع إذا في الربيع نمت و لم تشعر الفجر عندما في كل مكان تسمع أطيار يغنين؛ و الليل أتيت و الريح و المطر يصوتون هل تتعرف كم فقدت؟

Transliteration English 'al-fajr fī 'ar-rabīṙ 'iḏā fī al-rabīṛ nimta wa lima tašaṛuru al-fajr, Ṛindamā fī kull makān tasmaṛu 'aṭyār yuġannīn; Wa al-layla 'atayta wa al-rīḥ wa al-maṭar ṣawwattū, Hal tataṛarrafu kam faqadta? Dawn in Spring If in spring you sleep and don't feel the dawn, When everywhere you hear birds singing; And the night comes and the wind and the rain sound, Do you know how much you've lost?

Arabic

Unvocalized Vocalized الفجر في الربيع أذا في الربيع نمت و لم تشعر الفجر، عندما في كل مكان تسمع أن الأطير يغنون، و الليل أتى و الريح و المطر صويوا، هل تتعرف كم فقدت؟ الفجر في الربيع إِذَا فِي الرَبِيعِ نِمْتَ وَلَمْ تَشْعُرْ الفَجْرَ، عِنْدَمَا فِي كُلّ مَكَانْ تَسْمَعُ أَنَّ الطُيُورَ يُغَنُّونَ، وَ اللَيْل أَتَى وَ الرِيحْ وَ المَطَرْ صَوَّتُوا، هَل تَتَعَرَّفُ كَمْ فَقَدْتَ؟

Transliteration English 'al-fajra fī 'ar-rabīṙi 'iðā fī ar-rabīṛi nimta wa lam tašaṛuru al-fajra, Ṛindamā fī kull makān tasmaṛu 'anna aṭ-ṭuyūra yuġannūna, Wa al-layl 'atā wa ar-rīḥ wa al-maṭar ṣawwatū, Hal tataṛarrafu kam faqadta? Dawn in Spring If in spring you sleep and don't feel the dawn, When everywhere you hear birds singing; And the night comes and the wind and the rain sound, Do you know how much you've lost?

Arabic

Unvocalized Vocalized الفجر في الربيع أذا في الربيع نمت و لم شعر الفجر، عندما في كل مكان تسمع أن الأطير يغني، و الليل أتى و الريح و المطر صوت، هل تتعرف كم فقدت؟ الفجر في الربيع إِذَا فِي الرَبِيعِ نِمْتَ وَلِمَ شْعَرَ الفَجْرَ، عِنْدَمَا فِي كُلّ مَكَانْ تَسْمَعُ أَنَّ الطُيُورَ يُغَنِّي، وَ اللَيْل أَتَى وَ الرِيحْ وَ المَطَرْ صَوّّتَ، هَل تَتَعَرَّفُ كَمْ فَقَدْتَ؟

Transliteration English 'al-fajra fī 'ar-rabīṙi 'iðā fī ar-rabīṛi nimta wa lima šaṛara al-fajra, Ṛindamā fī kull makān tasmaṛu 'anna aṭ-ṭuyūra yuġannī, Wa al-layl 'atā wa ar-rīḥ wa al-maṭar ṣawwata, Hal tataṛarrafu kam faqadta? Dawn in Spring If in spring you sleep and don't feel the dawn, When everywhere you hear birds singing; And the night comes and the wind and the rain sound, Do you know how much you've lost?

Arabic

الفجر في الربيع إِذَا فِي الرَبِيعِ نِمْتَ وَلِمَ تَشَعُرُ الفَجْرِ، عِنْدَمَا فِي كُلّ مَكَانْ تَسْمَعُ أَنَّ الطُيُورَ طُغَنِّي، اِيذَنْ، عِنْدَمَا اللَّيْلَةُ‎ أَتَى وَ الرِيحُ وَ المَطَرُ صَوَّتَ، هَل تَتَعَرَّفُ كَمْ إوْرَاكٌ‎ وَقَعَوا؟

'al-fajri fī 'ar-rabīṙi 'idhā fī 'ar-rabīŕi nimta wa lima tashaŕuru 'al-fajri Ŕindamā fī kull makān tasmaŕu 'anna 'aṭ-ṭuyūra ṭughannī 'īdhan, ŕindamā 'al-laylatu 'atā wa 'ar-rīḥu wa 'al-maṭaru ṣawwata Hal tataŕarrafu kam 'awrāqun waqaŕū?

Arabic

الفجر في الربيع ،إذا في الربيع نمت و لم تشعر الفجر عندما في كل مكان تسمع أن الطيور تغني؛ ،ايذن، عندما الليلت أتى و الريح و المطر صوت هل تتعرف كم إوراك وكعوا؟

'al-fajri fī 'ar-rabīṙi 'idhā fī 'ar-rabīŕi nimta wa lam tashŕuru 'al-fajra Ŕindamā fī kull makān tasmaŕu 'anna 'aṭ-ṭuyūra tughannī 'īdhan, ŕindamā 'al-laylu 'atā wa 'ar-rīḥu wa 'al-maṭaru ṣawwata Hal tataŕarrafu kam 'awrāqun waqaŕū?

Arabic

الفجر في الربيع إذا في الربيع نمت و لم شعرت بالفجر عندما في كل مكان تسمع أن الاطيار يغني؛ اذن، عندما الليل يأتي و الريح و المطر يصوت هل تعرف كم زهور وقعوا؟

'al-fajru fī 'ar-rabīṙi 'idhā fī 'ar-rabīŕi nimta wa lam šaṛarta bi 'al-fajri Ŕindamā fī kulli makānin tasmaŕu 'anna al-'atyāru yughannī 'idhan, ŕindamā 'al-laylu ya'tī wa 'ar-rīḥu wa 'al-maṭaru yuṣawwitu Hal taṛrifu kam zuhūrun waqaŕū?

A translation mistake

Back in 2013, and also in 2016, I was convinced that 花落 | huāluò was a single verb meaning "waste". I might have had this idea since I "knew" huā means "waste" other than "flower", so I thought it was just a compound verb. In effect, huā means "to spend", and I had seen it in Lau-moi A-fa in the "verb" 乱花 | luànhuā, which means "to spend crazily", or "to squander". This is why the 2016 version ended with «وَ اللَيْل أَتَى وَ الرِيحْ وَ المَطَرْ، صَوَّتُوا / هَل تَتَعَرَّفُ كَمْ فَقَدْتَ؟», transliteration «Wa al-layl 'atā wa ar-rīḥ wa al-maṭar ṣawwatū, / Hal tataṛarrafu kam faqadta?» (with a few non-classical endings as well, two of which were corrected in those comments to the 4/1 post), and the original English version ended with «And the night comes, with sound of wind and rain, / You've wasted lots! Do you know just how much?».

A few… um… "final" remarks?

[I will add comments to this section after the massive edit done above.]
I notice that the tense choice in the Arabic is partially bullcrap. "nimta" is past because if-clauses in Arabic always want that, but "tašaŕuru", coordinate to "nimta", is not. [This was fixed above.]
Then, by influence of this, "'atā" and "ṣawwata" are past, though with the new structuring, which places those verbs outside the if-clause in a "when-clause" of their own, they should be present (right?), i.e. "ya'tī" and "yuṣawwitu" respectively, all singular because «with things and objects verbs are always singular», or at least that's what I gathered from the correction of my Lebanese friend, who corrected earlier yughannūna to yughannī (actually, I then moved to tughannī for gender reasons). [That was fixed thanks to these remarks.]
Finally, it is my impression that "yaqdamu" is a more appropriate verb here than "ya'tī": the former is given by Wiktionary as a translation of the sense "to arrive, to appear", whereas the latter is a translation of "to move nearer", and the former sense seems the better fit here. But that is just speculation-y. [That is why I'm leaving ya'tī for the moment. When someone comments, I will act accordingly #IambicPentameter.] Any comments are welcome, of course.

Equimetrical English

"impossible to keep the meter", huh? Well, on 19/2/23 at about 12:40 Turkish time, as I visit Hagia Sophia, I beg to differ. It does require to drop a few details, but the message can be kept while keeping the meter. 2/5/23 13:57, possibly as I sing this to the Chinese tune (see below), I change «How m'ny petals fell» to the below.

春晓 春眠不觉晓, 处处闻啼鸟; 夜来风雨声, 花落知多少?

Chūn Xiǎo Chūn mián bù jué xiǎo, Chùchù wén tí niǎo; Yè lái (*) fēng yǔ shēng, Huā luò zhī duõshǎo?

Spring Dawn Do not sleep in spring: Hear the birds at dawn! Then you'll know, at night, How many blooms fell.

«This will allow me to sing this in English when I musicate the Chinese. I'm planning to try the same with Arabic, but that might actually be impossible, given how much longer than the English the literal version was», and we will see about that soon. First though, I did musicate the Chinese, as per the next section. As you will see, the score has equimetrical English and the Arabic version from three sections down.

Equimetrical Arabic: a half-success

As it turns out, this was indeed impossible. There's just too many syllables in Arabic. I tried on 1/5/23 at 23:30-23:56, and deemed it impossible without making the last two lines one syllable too long. The result of this trick, which I attempted on 6/5/23 at 15:24, is the below. If we eliminate the ŕadad, we have an equimetrical translation if we split zuhūrun as zu-/hūrun between the last two lines. On 1/5/23 I also devised another start: «اُشْعُرْ‎ الفجرَ! / لَا تَنَمْ! كَذَا / سَوفَ تَقدَرُ», i.e. «'Ušŕur al-fajra! / Lā tanam! Kadhā / Sawfa taqdiru», missing a final line "the fallen flowers". 18/3/24 11:09 I write, among a list of edits to make to this post, «Pretty sure «'Ušŕur al-fajru» should have fajra» (oh look, I had it right in the incomplete attempt just seen), then at 11:11 I add «In fact, it should be 'Ušŕur bi-l-fajri». So that is what «اُشْعُرْ الفجرَ! | 'Ušŕur al-fajru» becomes. And note how it was the transliteration that got it wrong, not the Arabic.

الفَجرُ فِي الرَبِيعِ اُشْعُرْ بِالفجرِ! لَا تَنَمْ! سَوفَ تَعْرِفُ‎ كَم عَدَد وَقَعُوا‎ زُهُورٌ

Al-fajru fī 'r-rabīŕi 'Ušŕur bi-l-fajri! Lā tanam! Sawfa Taŕrifu kam ŕadad Zuhūrun waqaŕū.

Dawn in Spring Feel the dawn Don't sleep! You will Know how many Flowers fell.

The tune

To make up for this insuccess, at 23:59 and going on till 0:02 I musicate the Chinese, producing the below tune.

More in detail, l. 1 at 23:59, l. 2 at 23:59, l. 3 at 0:00, l. 4 at 0:02, just as above. The tune was meant to follow the tones and to use the pentatonic scale. The very last syllable is the only place where this fails. Hence why, at 1:52 on 5/3/24, I changed it so that the shǎo goes DCF instead of FEF. Then I forgot about this, so at 9:22 the following morning I contemplated AG EA or AF EA or AE CA for "bu jue", but then undid it at 9:23, and remade the l. 4 change from above, contemplating FCF but discarding it at 10:52 on 14/3/24.

Double-syllable Arabic

In order to have something to sing to the newly-composed tune for this song (see score above), in the night after failing the equimetrical Arabic, I tried and succeeded in making a double-syllable Arabic, i.e. something with 10-syllable lines instead of 5-syllable lines. I did so 0:10-0:57. I then asked @ATajuddin for comments on this, since, as a Muslim, she has actually studied Arabic. She replied she could not help me, but maybe her Syrian friend could. This friend sent her the following translation: «Dawn in the spring / In the spring don’t sleep at dawn: / To listen to the birds always! / You will be able at night / How many flowers have fallen, uh!». Seeing this at 20:06 on 19/3/24, I noticed two things:

1. لَاِسْتَمِعْ is a mis-Arabification, since that la- at the start just isn't there in the transliteration, nor should it; removing it should make this form the imperative it was always meant to be;
2. As I wrote to @ATajuddin at 20:23, «It seems I chose a wrong verb in l. 3, which was meant to be "Then you will know, at night"; I assume she decided to leave "then" (sawfa) untranslated»; well, sawfa is the auxiliary for the future (think "will", except the following verb still inflects), but aside from that, I then worked out the correct verb by 20:32: «Send her "سوف جيد تعرف في الليل" as a new l. 3. Or maybe "سوف تعرف جيد في الليل".»; note that the original was «سَوفَ تَسْتَطِيعُ‎ في اللَيلِ | Sawfa tastaṭīŕu fī al-layli»; I later conceived «سَوْفَ تَتَعَرَّفُ فِي الفَجْرِ | Sawfa tataŕarrafu fī-l fajri» 21/3/24 14:42, which has two errors: 1) fajri instead of layli, 2) «tataŕarrafu is "become acquainted" apparently» (14:42).

The result is below.

الفَجرُ فِي الرَبِيعِ فِي الرَبِيعِ لَا تَنَم فِي الفَجرِ: اِسْتَمِعْ إِلَى الْأَطْيَارِ دَوْمًا! سَوفَ جَيِّدْ تَعْريِفُ في اللَيلِ كَمْ أَزْهَارٌ قَدْ تَسَاقَطَ، أوه!

Al-fajru fī 'r-rabīŕi Fī 'r-rabīŕi lā tanam fī 'l-fajri: 'Istamiŕ 'ilā 'l-aṭyāri dawman! Sawfa jayyid taŕrifu fī 'l-layli Kam 'azhārun qad tasāqaṭa, 'ūh!

Dawn in Spring In spring don't sleep at dawn: Listen to the birds everywhere! You will know at night How many flowers have fallen, oh!

Sum-up: translations of the old interpretation

So let me sum everything up. For the original interpretation, we have five translations: English iambic pentameters, Arabic cantilated, English equimetrical, Arabic near-equimetrical, and Arabic double-syllable. The Arabic versions are sided with a literal English translation, wherever it fits. The English Iambic pentameters are sided with an English equimetrical rendition of the Arabic equimetrical rendition, dated 21/3/24 9:08-9:09, which probably had an alternate start «Feel the dawn in spring» at some point. For the new interpretation, let's get to that further below :).

春晓 春眠不觉晓, 处处闻啼鸟; 夜来风雨声, 花落知多少? الفَجرُ فِي الرَبِيعِ اُشْعُرْ بِالفجرِ! لَا تَنَمْ! سَوفَ تَعْرِفُ كَم عَدَد وَقَعُوا زُهُورٌ الفَجرُ فِي الرَبِيعِ فِي الرَبِيعِ لَا تَنَم فِي الفَجرِ: اِسْتَمِعْ إِلَى الْأَطْيَارِ دَوْمًا! سَوفَ جَيِّدْ تَعْريِفُ في اللَيلِ كَمْ أَزْهَارٌ قَدْ تَسَاقَطَ، أوه! Spring Dawn (old equi) Always feel the dawn: Do not sleep! You will Very well know how Many flowers fell

Chūn Xiǎo Chūn mián bù jué xiǎo, Chùchù wén tí niǎo; Yè lái (*) fēng yǔ shēng, Huā luò zhī duõshǎo? Al-fajru fī 'r-rabīŕi (old near-equi) 'Ušŕur bi-l-fajri! Lā tanam! Sawfa Taŕrifu kam ŕadad Zuhūrun waqaŕū. Al-fajru fī 'r-rabīŕi (old double-syllable) Fī 'r-rabīŕi lā tanam fī 'l-fajri: 'Istamiŕ 'ilā 'l-aṭyāri dawman! Sawfa jayyid taŕrifu fī 'l-layli Kam 'azhārun qad tasāqaṭa, 'ūh! Spring Dawn (ANE equimetrical) Always feel the dawn: Do not sleep! You will Very well know how Many flowers fell

Spring Dawn (lit.) If you sleep in spring and do not feel dawn, Where tweeting birds are heard everywhere; Then night comes with sound of wind and rain, Do you know how many flowers fell? Dawn in Spring Feel the dawn Don't sleep! You will Know how many Flowers fell. Dawn in Spring In spring don't sleep at dawn: Listen to the birds everywhere! You will know at night How many flowers have fallen, oh! Spring Dawn (Iambic pentameters) If in spring you sleep and do not feel dawn, When birdsongs can be heard in any place, And then night comes with sounds of stormy winds, Do you know just how many flowers fell?

الفجر في الربيع إذا في الربيع نمت و لم شعرت بالفجر عندما في كل مكان تسمع أن الاطيار يغني؛ اذن، عندما الليل يأتي و الريح و المطر يصوت هل تعرف كم زهور وقعوا؟

'al-fajru fī 'ar-rabīṙi (cantilated) 'idhā fī 'ar-rabīŕi nimta wa lam šaṛarta bi 'al-fajri Ŕindamā fī kulli makānin tasmaŕu 'anna al-'atyāru yughannī 'idhan, ŕindamā 'al-laylu ya'tī wa 'ar-rīḥu wa 'al-maṭaru yuṣawwitu Hal taṛrifu kam zuhūrun waqaŕū?

Interpretation problems

Already back in 2022, or definitely 2023 when I made the massive edit above, I had run into translations of this online that went something like:

Sleeping in spring, I hardly know day breaks.
Everywhere I can hear birds singing.
At night I heard the sound of wind and rain.
Next morning, who knows how many flowers had fallen.

And I was like, hm. Who’s right here? Both versions now seem to go a bit heavy on the additions: mine from 2013 is adding a subordination on l. 2 and one on l. 3, the online one has that “next morning” which is nowhere in the poem that I can see. So let me turn them around a bit:

Sleeping in spring, you will not be aware of dawn And hear singing birds everywhere. Night will come with sound of wind and rain, And will you know how many flowers fell?

Sleeping in spring, I’m not aware of dawn And don’t hear singing birds everywhere. Night will come with sound of wind and rain, And will I know how many flowers fell?

So basically we have either a generic you, meaning this is sort of a moral advice (Do not sleep in spring), or an I, a personal experience. Which do you think is the correct version, and why? Any changes you’d suggest for either version?

From the online translation up to this point, I was actually quoting this SE question, which I only got around to asking on 6/3/24. And on that same day, after recording the intro to Lord Randall which references the question, I got an answer. two, in fact. Well, three, but the third I don't care about.
So, the first one discards both interpretations, in favor of a new one. I do not wish to summarize it though. The second one gives me a different rhyming translation:

Slumber beyond dawn in Spring,
Birds everywhere are heard to sing;
A night of wind and rain,
Fallen leaves un-ascertained.

So basically the poem is split into two: first, the mention of dawn, then, disconnected from it, the mention of night. And part of my misinterpretation is that it is not "yè lái", "night comes", but "yèlái", "last night", hence the (*) above. There is also the ambiguity of "everywhere" I must point out, as in the first answer: «a. Literally, there are many birds, all around.», one meaning, but also, «b. In a drowsy state, with unclear consciousness, feeling that birds are crying around, unable to discern where the birds actually are.».
And the last line is supposed to be not a question, but an exclamation: "who knows how many flowers fell!". In effect, I was pointed to online analyses. I tried looking them up with Baidu as per a comment to answer 1, but unfortunately they never seemed to expand fully for me, or they were impossible to copypaste into Google (my reading Chinese is too slow for me to decipher that without some help). One thing I did notice, however, is how a bunch of glossings for this poem glossed 知：不知, literally "know: don't know". And I was like, WTF? Basically, "who knows" is taken rhetorically to mean "nobody knows", hence "I don't know" either.
The above translation was from 11:20 as the answer. I later tried to make it musical, 17/3/24 19:40-19:43:

Sleep past dawn in Spring,
Birds everywhere do sing;
At night, wind and rain,

and I got mighty stuck on that last line. I had «How many flowers down lain?», which I discarded as disgusting, «How many flow'rs were slain?», to which I was like hmm, and finally «Flowers fell in pain», which is what I settled for.

A bunch of English remakes, and two Arabic ones

Then I tried my own version, starting at 20:00 with «Unaware of dawn, / Sleeping through spring birdsongs,». «Spring-sleep till past dawn» 20:15, meh. «Sleeping through/past sunrise / With birdsongs all around,», 20:18. «Through->With the->last night's wind-cries, / Flowers fell to the ground!», 20:19. «I've slept past sunrise», 20:19. fell->dropped in l. 4, 20:20, immediately discarded. «I've slept past sunrise, / Where birdsongs are all around; / With last night's wind-cries, / Flowers fell to the ground!», 20:21. Then I think back to answer 1, with its "in a drowsy state", and so «Drowsy past sunrise, / I hear birdsongs all around», 20:24, and then «I hear birds all 'round», 20:25. Finally, I think of what to do with l. 4. «How many flowers on ground!», 20:27?, Hm… «fell down», 20:27. «storm-skies / stormy skies, 20:30? Meh. «Last night, with storms in the skies -> with stormy skies», 20:32, which I decide to ditch.
17/3/24 19:26, I go back to the question and update it with:

Drowsy past sunrise,
I hear birds all 'round;
With last night's wind-cries,
Flowers fell to the ground!

In response to this, at 2:42 the following night (but I'm only seeing this now), answer 2 was edited to include the following translation, made by an AI Platform as an improvement to the answer's initial translation:

Spring's light paints my face, a brand new morn,
Birdsong floods the air, a joyful horn.
A night of wind's harsh cry and rain's soft sigh,
Leaves unseen beneath a tear-filled sky.

Marveling at the AI's capabilities, I think I will still try my own double-syllable English. After all, the sleep and the birds are gone from this translation. And I like to keep all the original elements :). We'll see where this leads.
In a comment to the question, this answer's author suggests to change the last line from «Flowers fell to the ground»: «Yes, the "Update" definitely fits the economy of words that Oriental poems are famous for, (think Haiku) The last line could, IMHO, be shortened, not just for the sake of shortening, but as a crisp counter balance for the longish 3rd Line. My suggestion, "Flowers fell on ground" which also complements the second Line both in syllabic value and rhythm.», he says at 2:04 on 24/3/24. I reply «@WayneCheah absolutely. I think I was taking flowers as a single syllable, which is a bit forced. "Blooms fell to the ground" would solve that, but flowers is probably better.» at 7:35 the next morning.
But wait! There's more! Because of course, I need to remake the Arabic! And so far, I only remade the equimetrical version, ironically enough, at 20:42-20:52 on 17/3/24 - and the goddamn misread as nāřim haunts me forever :) -:

الفَجرُ فِي الرَبِيعِ نَائِمْ فِي الرَبِيعِ، اَسْمَعُ الطُيُورَ. لبَارِحَ فِي الرِيحِ وَقَعُو الوُرُودْ.

Al-fajru fī 'r-rabīŕi Nā'im fī-r rabīŕi, 'Asmaŕu-ṭ ṭuyūra. Al-bāriḥa fī-r rīḥi Waqaŕū-l wurūd.

Dawn in Spring Sleeping at dawn, I hear the birds. Last night in the wind The flowers have fallen!

21/3/24 14:50 I put this together, then decide to change it at 15:13, mostly because the Arabic actually says "in Spring", not "at dawn", but also because that use of the participle I am not convinced by. So the final l. 1 is «أنَامُ فِي الفَجرِ | 'Anāmu fī-l fajri, | I sleep at dawn».
And that's where I'm at for now. I'm waiting for Asmā to send all this Arabic stuff, ona translation at a time, to the Syrian friend, so she can comment on this, and I'm also waiting for a moment when I can do the double-syllable remakes.
Between 23/3/24 23:55 and 0:22 the following night, I make a bunch of possible translations, which I condense into 5 versions (DS1 to DS5) on 3/4/24 because I need to put them here. That is also when I add the "sound" line to DS2 and DS4, which were not given a translation for it, but I decided I could use the one from DS1, with the rhyme scheme coming out as AABA just like the Chinese.
To close this off, at least for now, we have the double-syllable Arabic. I finally get around to remaking it on 24/3/24, and do so at 23:40-0:12, tweaking it the next day at 14:18.

Sum-up: translations of the new interpretation

So for this interpretation we have: the initial English from the answer, my modification of it, my own equimetrical remake, the Arabic equimetrical remake, the AI English, and eventually my two double-syllable remakes.

春晓 春眠不觉晓, 处处闻啼鸟; 夜来风雨声, 花落知多少! الفَجرُ فِي الرَبِيعِ أنَامُ فِي الفَجرِ، اَسْمَعُ الطُيُورَ. لبَارِحَ فِي الرِيحِ وَقَعُو الوُرُودْ. Spring Dawn (answer's attempt) Slumber beyond dawn in Spring, Birds everywhere are heard to sing; A night of wind and rain, Fallen leaves un-ascertained.

Chūn Xiǎo Chūn mián bù jué xiǎo, Chùchù wén tí niǎo; Yèlái fēng yǔ shēng, Huā luò zhī duõshǎo! Al-fajru fī 'r-rabīŕi (new near-equi) 'Anāmu fī-l fajri, 'Asmaŕu-ṭ ṭuyūra. Al-bāriḥa fī-r rīḥi Waqaŕū-l wurūd. Spring Dawn (modified answer) Sleep past dawn in Spring, Birds everywhere do sing; At night, wind and rain, Flowers fell in pain.

Spring Dawn (lit.) In spring [I] sleep, unaware of dawn, Hearing birds singing everywhere; Last night there was sound of wind and rain: Who knows how many flowers have fallen! Dawn in Spring I sleep at dawn, I hear the birds. Last night in the wind The flowers have fallen! Spring Dawn (new equi) Drowsy past sunrise, I hear birds all 'round; With last night's wind-cries, Flowers fell on ground!

Spring Dawn (AI) Spring's light paints my face, a brand new morn, Birdsong floods the air, a joyful horn. A night of wind's harsh cry and rain's soft sigh, Leaves unseen beneath a tear-filled sky. Spring Dawn (DS1) Sunshine's creeping o'er my drowsy eyes, I hear joyful birdsongs all around; Last night, of a storm I heard the sound: Many petals fell through stormy skies! [*] [*] Or: Just how many blooms met/had their demise? Or: Many petals fall when storms arise! Spring Dawn (DS2) O'er my drowsy eyes, the rising sun, All around me, birdsongs have begun; Last night of a storm I heard the sound: How much damage to the flowers was done! فَجرُ الرَبِيعِ نَائِم فِي الفَجرِ، اَنَا سَمِعْتُ فِي كُلِّ مَكَانِن اَلاَطْيَارُ؛ كَانَ عَاصِفَ فِي البَارِحََة: وَقَعُو فِي الرِيحِ كَم زُحُورُن؟

Spring Dawn (DS3) O'er my drowsy eyes the sunshine creeps, I hear joyful birdsongs all around; Last night of a storm I heard the sound: I don't know how many a petal weeps! Spring Dawn (DS5) As I'm drowsy, dawn creeps over me, All around me, brids sing joyfully; Last night of a storm I heard the sound: How many blooms were hurled onto/unto the ground! [*] [*] Or: Just how many blooms are/died on the ground? Or: How many blooms fell down to the ground? Spring Dawn (DS4) As I'm drowsy, dawn creeps over me, All around me, brids sing joyfully; Last night of a storm I heard the sound: How many blooms on the ground may be? Fajru 'ar-rabīŕi Nā'im fī 'l-fajri, 'anā samiŕtu Fī kulli makānin al-'ațyāru; Kāna ŕāṣifa fī 'l-bāriḥa: Waqaŕū fī 'r-rīḥi kam zuhūrun?