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

3. 青青陵上柏 - Green, Green, Cypress on the Mound

[x_los]

青青陵上柏
qīng qīng líng shàng bǎi
[green] [green] [mound] [on] [cypress]
Green is the cypress on the mound,

磊磊澗中石
lěi lěi jiàn zhōng shí
[rock pile] [rock pile] [stream] [in] [stone]
heaped are the stones in the stream.

人生天地間
rén shēng tiān dì jiān
[man] [live] [Heaven] [Earth] [between]
Man lives between Heaven and Earth,

忽如遠行客
hū rú yuǎn xíng kè
[suddenly] [like] [far] [travel] [guest]
suddenly like a guest travelling from afar.

斗酒相娛樂
dǒu jiǔ xiāng yú lè
[measure] [wine] [mutually] [amuse] [cheerful]
Let us enjoy a measure of wine together;

聊厚不為薄
liáo hòu bù wéi báo
[chat] [generous] [not] [be] [thin]
our friendship is rife, let it not be sparse.

驅車策怒馬
qū chē cè nù mǎ
[urge] [chariot] [control] [stubborn] [horse]
Yoke the chariot and whip the stubborn horses,

遊戲宛與洛
yóu xì wǎn yǔ luò
[roam] [play] [_Wan_] [and] [_Luo_]
travelling to to have fun in Wan and Luo.

洛中何鬱鬱
luò zhōng hé yùyù
[_Luo_] [in] [how] [dense] [dense]
How full of life it is in Luoyang;

冠帶自相索
guān dài zì xiāng suǒ
[hat] [lead] [each other][] [search]
officials rush around together,

長衢羅夾巷
zhǎng qú luó jiā xiàng
[long] [street] [gauze] [intersperse] [alley]
long boulevards intertwine with narrow alleys,

王候多第宅
wáng hou duō dì zhái
[royal] [noble] [many] [count] [residence]
the mansions of aristocrats are many,

兩宮遙相望
liǎng gōng yáo xiāng wàng
[two] [palace] [far away] [each other gaze]
and the two royal palaces gaze at each other from afar.

雙闕百餘尺
shuāng què bǎi yú chǐ
[pair] [tower] [hundred] [excess] [foot]
The pair of towers in excess of a hundred feet high.

極宴娛心意
jí yàn yú xīn yì
[utmost] [feast] [amuse] [heart] [intention]
let us delight in the pleasures of our hearts.

戚戚何所迫
qi qi hé suǒ pò
[sorrowful] [sorrowful] [what] [that which is] [force]
As for gloominess - what could make us unhappy?

Re: 3. 青青陵上柏 - Green, Green, Cypress on the Mound

[x_los]

'on cyprus' this is like the 4th time, Chinese must put its 'where object' particle BEFORE the object I guess

磊 please tell me the word for 'rock pile' includes a little drawing of a pile of rocks.is that what the bottom is? god I hope so.

'our friendship is rife, let it not be sparse.' awkward

The end sort of begs a 'well, what indeed?'

Re: 3. 青青陵上柏 - Green, Green, Cypress on the Mound

[(Anonymous)]

The office party to end all office parties!

Re: 3. 青青陵上柏 - Green, Green, Cypress on the Mound

[forestofglory]

I think it's a pile of three 石s which is the radical for stone, so it's more or less a rock pile.

Re: 3. 青青陵上柏 - Green, Green, Cypress on the Mound

[elviaprose]

Totally love the image of a busy, rich life this poem creates. A real departure from the first two poems in almost every way. Much less duality/contrast. Do we read the last line as ironic at all?

Re: 3. 青青陵上柏 - Green, Green, Cypress on the Mound

[superborb]

I think it's meant to be ironic! Baike's analysis mentions that the rich and powerful only amusing themselves and not concerning themselves with the country is in contrast to the narrator's sorrow.

Re: 3. 青青陵上柏 - Green, Green, Cypress on the Mound

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for this, and your other comments! That makes sense to me.

Re: 3. 青青陵上柏 - Green, Green, Cypress on the Mound

[superborb]

Baike:

Thank you Baike for the 2384972389th discussion on the color of qing. Baike says here, it's the lushness of the vegetation.

It's interesting that Baike glosses the fact that 磊 is a combined ideogram formed of three 'stone' characters? I guess it must not be in wide use anymore, though the dictionary does not note that it is archaic or anything like that.

The 'guest travelling from afar' is a metaphor for the shortness of life, like a passing traveler in the world, who must go back soon.

The 'sparse' in 'our friendship is rife, let it not be sparse' is glossed as the aroma of the wine being insipid/weak.

The 'stubborn horses' are inferior, worn out horses. Also used as an adjective as a metaphor to mean substandard.

There were two palaces (north and south) in Luoyang city.

The towers are two platforms in front of ancient palaces, temples, or mausoleums, usually one on the left and one on the right, with a road in between, to allow people to keep watch. Also an alternate name for the palace gates.

Baike's gloss points out that it has the common theme of life being short with the poem 驱车上东门 in this collection, but the artistic implications are different.