Nineteen Old Poems: Week 1 of 2

[x_los]

* 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.

Comments

10. 迢迢牽牛星 - So Remote, the Draught Ox Star

[x_los]

迢迢牽牛星
tiáo tiáo qiān niú xīng
[remote] [remote] [pull] [ox] [star]
So remote, the Draught Ox star,

皎皎河漢女
jiǎo jiǎo hé hàn nǚ
[bright] [bright] [river] [_Han_] [girl]
While the Weaver Girl shines brightly in the Milky Way.

纖纖擢素手
xiān xiān zhuó sù shǒu
[delicate] [delicate] [pull up] [pale] [hand]
Delicately she lifts a pale hand,

札札弄機杼
zhá zhá nòng jī zhù
[clack] [clack] [handle] [machine] [shuttle]
clack, clack goes the shuttle of her loom.

終日不成章
zhōng rì bù chéng zhāng
[end] [day] [not] [finish] [section]
All day long without finish,

泣涕零如雨
qì tì líng rú yǔ
[sob] [tears][] [like] [rain]
she sobs and sheds tears like rain.

河漢清且淺
hé hàn qīng qiě qiǎn
[river] [Han] [clear] [and] [shallow]
The Milky Way is clear and shallow;

相去復幾許
xiāng qù fù jǐ xǔ
[each other] [remove] [go back] [almost] [permit]
they are but a tiny distance from each other,

盈盈一水間
yíng yíng yī shuǐ jiān
[full] [full] [one] [water] [space]
at most the width of a stream,

脈脈不得語
mò mò bù dé yǔ
[affection][] [not] [get] [speech]
yet their affection can never speak.

Re: 10. 迢迢牽牛星 - So Remote, the Draught Ox Star

[x_los]

'jiǎo jiǎo hé hàn nǚ
[bright] [bright] [river] [_Han_] [girl]
While the Weaver Girl shines brightly in the Milky Way.' you get Weaver Girl just from Han?!

so I guess 'Han River' is Milky Way then

So the crying is over her boyfriend, not the labour

Re: 10. 迢迢牽牛星 - So Remote, the Draught Ox Star

[ann712]

It’s like those lovers on Willow patterned plates - or those in myths who are turned into stars - eternally together but never able to touch.

Re: 10. 迢迢牽牛星 - So Remote, the Draught Ox Star

[superborb]

The 'Han river girl' is an allusion to the Weaver Girl. Baike says the Han river refers to the Milky Way, though modern Chinese would say Yin river. Baike adds that the 'Han river girl' is a more poetic and emotional way to refer to the star, as if it were a real person, instead of the formally correct name.