鸟之将死，其鸣也哀
niǎo​zhī​jiāng​sǐ​qí​míng​yě'āi

a bird's song is mournful at death's door

  • created sense approved 鸟之将死，其鸣也哀/鳥之將死，其鳴也哀 · niǎo​zhī​jiāng​sǐ​qí​míng​yě'āi · a bird's song is mournful at death's door — "Initial import from upstream dictionary"

    鸟之将死，其鸣也哀 / 鳥之將死，其鳴也哀

    niǎo​zhī​jiāng​sǐ​qí​míng​yě'āi

    a bird's song is mournful at death's door

    when a bird is about to die, its cry is mournful; the first half of a proverb suggesting that a person's final words are sincere and kind

    鸟 (literal) → 鸟/鳥 · niǎo · bird 之 (literal) → 之 · zhī · [nominalizer] 将死 (literal) → 将死/將死 · jiāng​sǐ · to be dying ， (non_chinese) 其 (literal) → 其 · qí · [third-person possessive] 鸣 (literal) → 鸣/鳴 · míng · to cry 也 (literal) → 也 · yě · [classical particle] 哀 (literal) → 哀 · āi · sad

    Changed: simplified, traditional, gloss, definition, pinyin, variant pinyin, variants, separable parts, decomposition

    created sense