诗歌
shī gē · HSK 5
poem
📜 诗歌 = 诗 poem + 歌 song; literary verse meant to be sung
诗 (shī) means poem and 歌 (gē) means song; together 诗歌 covers poetry as a genre, especially lyrical or sung verse. The compound stresses the musical, recitable side of poems rather than dry written text.
诗 — speech radical 讠 + temple 寺
诗 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (speech) signals meaning related to language or words, while 寺 (temple/office) provides the sound. Originally referring to chanted verse and ritual songs, it came to mean 'poetry' broadly.
歌 — 哥 (phonetic 'gē') + 欠 (open mouth)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 欠 depicts a person with an open mouth, supplying the meaning of singing or vocalizing. The left side 哥 gives the sound 'gē'. Together they form the verb and noun for 'song' or 'to sing'.