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