Nineteen Old Poems: Week 2 of 2

[x_los]

 * 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.

* Next batch of poems, the first half of Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute, MONDAY, AUGUST 30th.

 

Comments

18. 客從遠方來 – A Guest Comes from Afar

[x_los]

客從遠方來
kè cóng yuǎn fāng lái
[guest] [from] [far] [place] [come]
A guest comes from afar

遺我一端綺
yí wǒ yī duān qǐ
[leave] [me] [one] [length] [embroidered silk]
and leaves with me one length of embroidered silk.

相去萬餘里
xiāng qù wàn yú lǐ
[each] [remove] [ten thousand] [excess] [mile]
There is more than a myriad miles between us,

故人心尚爾
gù rén xīn shàng ěr
[old] [person] [heart] [still] [you] (故人 is a common binome meaning 'old friend'.)
but you are still in your old friend’s heart.

文彩雙鴛鴦
wén cǎi shuāng yuān yāng
[resplendent][] [pair] [mandarin duck][] ([文彩](http://www.zdic.net/cd/ci/4/ZdicE6Zdic96Zdic87155884.htm "Meaning of 文彩") is a binome meaning 'gorgeous' or 'colourful')
A pair of gorgeously coloured mandarin ducks,

裁為合歡被
cái wèi hé huān bèi
[cut out] [to be] [togther] [joyous] [quilt] (The quilt seems to be a token of a happy marriage.)
cut out to make a quilt of joyous union.

著以長相思
zhe yǐ zhǎng xiàng sī
[touch] [take] [countenance][] [think of]
One touches its countenance longingly.

緣以結不解
yuán yǐ jié bù jiě
[hem] [so as] [bond] [not] [break up]
As the hem is bound, so our bond will not break

以膠投漆中
yǐ jiāo tóu qī zhōng
[take] [glue] [put on] [paint] [within]
Take glue and put it upon the paint;

誰能別離此
shéi néng bié lí cǐ
[who] [could] [separate] [leave] [this]
Who could separate this?

Re: 18. 客從遠方來 – A Guest Comes from Afar

[x_los]

Every fucking time, I think 'yi'/one is an emdash.

'and leaves with me one length of embroidered silk.' ...to strangle yourself?? harem drama has programmed me to think this is ominous

so old friend is spousal, here

Then we're quilting, then we're painting? We sort of shift between craft metaphors in an unannounced way.

Re: 18. 客從遠方來 – A Guest Comes from Afar

[superborb]

Baike says one length is significant bc it's supposed to come as a pair, so maybe relevant? That doesn't end up in its analysis though.

It says that after she ponders over the quilt, she thinks about how the knot in the hem will eventually get loose, so only glue and lacquer are difficult to separate.