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* I found the best option for the weekly reminder emails, via Gmail. The external service options are more involved than our purposes require. Does anyone know anything about how to arrange an Apps Script? Basically all it has to do is tell ten people, on Saturdays, to come and get their juice/poems.
Until someone knows what to do there, I'll send out manual messages weekly. If you'd like to receive these and are not getting them, please let me know.
* If you haven't read it yet, chapter one, on tetrasyllabic shi poetry, in How to Read Chinese Poetry is hugely useful for the Book of Odes, imo.
* Remember you can also look at How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context.
* IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN or have other ideas, please let me know on this post.
* Every week I search the poems' English results to see if I can find any scholarship or neat bits and pop the results in Resources. Here is this week's collection.
**NEXT BATCH JUNE 7.**
Until someone knows what to do there, I'll send out manual messages weekly. If you'd like to receive these and are not getting them, please let me know.
* If you haven't read it yet, chapter one, on tetrasyllabic shi poetry, in How to Read Chinese Poetry is hugely useful for the Book of Odes, imo.
* Remember you can also look at How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context.
* IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN or have other ideas, please let me know on this post.
* Every week I search the poems' English results to see if I can find any scholarship or neat bits and pop the results in Resources. Here is this week's collection.
**NEXT BATCH JUNE 7.**
264. 瞻卬 - Zhan Yang
孔填不寧、降此大厲。
邦靡有定、士民其瘵。
蟊賊蟊疾、靡有夷屆。
罪罟不收、靡有夷瘳。
I look up to great Heaven,
But it shows us no kindness.
Very long have we been disquieted,
And these great calamities are sent down [upon us].
There is nothing settled in the country;
Officers and people are in distress.
Through the insects from without and from within,
There is no peace or limit [to our misery].
The net of crime is not taken up,
And there is no peace nor cure [for our state].
人有土田、女反有之。
人有民人、女覆奪之。
此宜無罪、女反收之。
彼宜有罪、女覆說之。
Men had their ground and fields,
But you have them [now].
Men had their people and followers,
But you have violently taken them from them.
Here is one who ought to be held guiltless,
But you snare him [in the net of crime].
There is one who ought to be held guilty,
But you let him escape [from it].
哲夫成城、哲婦傾城。
懿厥哲婦、為梟為鴟。
婦有長舌、維厲之階。
亂匪降自天、生自婦人。
匪教匪誨、時維婦寺。
A wise man builds up the wall [of a city],
But a wise woman overthrows it.
Admirable may be the wise woman,
But she is [no better than] an owl.
A woman with a long tongue,
Is [like] a stepping-stone to disorder.
[Disorder] does not come down from heaven; -
It is produced by the woman.
Those from whom come no lessons, no instruction,
Are women and eunuchs.
鞫人忮忒、譖始竟背。
豈曰不極、伊胡為慝。
如賈三倍、君子是識。
婦無公事、休其蠶織。
They beat men down, hurtful, deceitful.
Their slanders in the beginning may be falsified in the end,
But they do not say [that their words were] very wrong; -
[They say], ' What evil was there in them?
As if in the three times cent per cent of traffic,
A superior man should have any knowledge of it;
So a woman who has nothing to do with public affairs,
Leaves her silk-worms and weaving.
天何以刺、何神不富。
舍爾介狄、維予胥忌。
不弔不祥、威儀不類。
人之云亡、邦國殄瘁。
Why is it that Heaven is [thus] reproving [you]?
Why is it that the Spirits are not blessing [you]?
You neglect your great barbarian [foes],
And regard me with hatred.
You are regardless of the evil omens [that abound],
And your demeanour is all-unseemly;
[Good] men are going away,
And the country is sure to go to ruin.
天之降罔、維其優儀。
人之云亡、心之憂矣。
天之降罔、維其幾矣。
人之云亡、心之悲矣。
Heaven is letting down its net,
And many [are the calamities in it].
[Good] men are going away,
And my heart is sorrowful.
Heaven is letting down its net,
And soon [will all be caught in it ].
Good men are going away.
And my heart is sad.
觱沸檻泉、維其深矣。
心之憂矣、寧自今矣。
不自我先、不自我後。
藐藐昊天、無不克鞏。
無忝皇祖、式救爾後。
Right from the spring comes the water bubbling,
Revealing its depth.
The sorrow of my heart, -
Is it [only] of to-day?
Why were these things not before me?
Or why were they not after me?
But mysteriously Great Heaven,
Is able to strengthen anything;
Do not disgrace your great ancestors,
And it will save your posterity.
Re: 264. 瞻卬 - Zhan Yang
"But she is [no better than] an owl." ??
"Those from whom come no lessons, no instruction,
Are women and eunuchs." but a second ago she was wise?
'But they do not say [that their words were] very wrong; -
[They say], ' What evil was there in them?
As if in the three times cent per cent of traffic,
A superior man should have any knowledge of it;' what?
'Heaven is letting down its net,
And many [are the calamities in it].' so we're back with the net, but I'm not clear on what this net is doing
Re: 264. 瞻卬 - Zhan Yang
I think the net of crime bit is saying that like, justice isn't being served / criminals aren't being caught.
Owls are bad, remember? Baike also glosses as legend says they would eat their mothers when they grew up. Anyway, evil birds.
I-- don't think that 'wise' is meant to be a good adjective for a woman. I wonder if this part is calling out the Bao Si situation, where You wang was trying to depose his empress for her?
The three times bit is glossed as referring to get three times the profit. Calling them profiteers, basically? Baike's discussion on this stanza is that it's saying that the way to prevent women's disasters is for them to return to women's work and not the gov't.
Baike's explanation for the heaven's net stanza is that the narrator is worried about the country in the face of natural and man made disasters
Re: 264. 瞻卬 - Zhan Yang
'cunning' or 'crafty' would be better than wise, then, because both have negative, femme associations 'wise' does not
Re: 264. 瞻卬 - Zhan Yang