dankodes | Nineteen Old Poems: Week 1 of 2

* The 'due date' for this batch is the week of August 18th: I just thought I'd make the post now so that people can trickle in whenever. There were two votes in favour of East Asia Student's translations, so that's what I've gone with. If you prefer or would like to bring another translation into the discussion, please feel free.

* Chapter Five of How to Read Chinese Poetry is specifically about the Nineteen Old Poems.

* 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.

* Remember you can also look at How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context, though it doesn't specifically treat this collection.

* IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN or have other ideas, please let me know on this post.

* 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

西北有高樓
xī běi yǒu gāo lóu
[west] [north] [has] [tall] [building]
There is a tall tower in the Northwest,

上與浮雲齊
shàng yǔ fú yún qí
[top] [with] [float] [cloud] [level]
its top level with the floating clouds,

交疏結綺窗
jiāo shū jié qǐ chuāng
[intersect] [thin] [bond] [silk lattice] [window]
its windows decorated with fine, elegant lattice,

阿閣三重階
ē gé sānchóng jiē
[flatter] [palace] [three] [layer] [rank]
its palatial roofs three layers high.

上有絃歌聲
shàng yǒu xián gē shēng
[top] [has] [string] [song] [sound]
At the top there is the sound of string and song,

音響一何悲
yīn xiǎng yī hé bēi
[sound] [noise] [one] [how] [sorrow]
how mournful is the sound.

誰能為此曲
shéi néng wéi cǐ qū
[who] [could] [do] [this] [tune]
Who could produce such a song?

無乃杞梁妻
wú nǎi qǐ liáng qī
[not have] [only] [_Qi_] [_Liang_] [wife]
None but the wife of Qi Liang.

清商隨風發
qīng shāng suí fēng fā
[pure] [_shang_] [follow] [wind] [develop]
The pure shang tone follows the wind,

中曲正徘徊
zhōng qū zhèng pái huái
[middle] [song] [just] [irresolute] [dither]
faltering and hesitating in the middle of the song.

一彈再三歎
yī dàn zài sān tàn
[one] [pluck] [again] [three] [sigh]
One pluck, two or three sighs,

慷慨有餘哀
kāng kǎi yǒu yú āi
[fervent] [sad] [has] [remain] [grief]
A fervent regret that lingers in sadness.

不惜歌者苦
bù xī gē zhě kǔ
[not] [pity] [song] [one who] [suffer]
One does not pity the suffering of the singer,

但傷知音稀
dàn shāng zhī yīn xī
[but] [hurt] [know] [sound] [rare]
but is hurt by the scarcity of those who understand the song.

願為雙鳴鶴
yuàn wéi shuāng míng hè
[wish] [be] [pair] [call] [crane]
Wishing to be a pair of calling cranes,

奮翅起稿飛
fèn chì qǐ gǎo fēi
[exert] [wing] [rise] [height] [fly]
Exerting their wings to fly to greater heights.

"The pure shang tone follows the wind," so what's this line, and what's a shang tone?

The ending is kind of mysterious.

Why does only this guy's wife have the necessary musical chops/depression issues for these beats? She has (as described) a very good tower, and everything.

I love ‘the pure Shang tone’. Very onomatopoeic. Like those searing notes the violin makes.

It sounds like she’s an unappreciated wife making music from her grief, and the poet is sad that she doesn’t have people around her who appreciate her worth. She’s got the tower but not the lurve.

Very much missing the social context of this poem, but the image is still incredibly beautiful

Baike:

'its windows decorated with fine, elegant lattice,': this lattice is a square pattern, with an open-work silk hanging curtain. Previous poem that mentioned poem has taught me that this word for window should be the one that is on the ceiling, but this entry does not mention that.

'its palatial roofs three layers high.' Baike says this is a pavilion with four sides that have eaves. The house is on a platform, with three layers of stairs, so it is very tall.

Qi Liang was a famous doctor in Qi state during the Spring and Autumn Period, sent on a punitive expedition to Ju state where he died. His wife cried bitterly for 10 days before committing suicide by drowning. Legend says that before her death, she composed the guqin song "the sigh of Qi Liang's wife".

'The pure shang tone follows the wind,': Baike glosses 'qing shang' (pure shang) as the name of the song. A clear and melodious tune, suitable for expressing grief. The character shang is the second note on the pentatonic scale.

'two or three sighs,': something about the overlapping of the overtones/harmonies?

Baike says that this tower is imaginary, despite people thinking that it is a real place.

Nineteen Old Poems: Week 1 of 2

5. 西北有高樓 - A Tall Tower in the Northwest

Re: 5. 西北有高樓 - A Tall Tower in the Northwest

Re: 5. 西北有高樓 - A Tall Tower in the Northwest

Re: 5. 西北有高樓 - A Tall Tower in the Northwest

Re: 5. 西北有高樓 - A Tall Tower in the Northwest