dankodes | Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: Poems 1-6

漢室將衰兮四夷不賓，
動干戈兮征戰頻。
哀哀父母生育我，
見亂離兮當此辰。
紗牕對鏡未經事，
將謂珠簾能蔽身。
一朝虜騎入中國，
蒼黃處處逢胡人。
忽將薄命委鋒鏑，
可惜紅顏隨虜塵。

The Han house is declining, the barbarians of the four directions have become unfriendly;
They raise arms, and wars are incessant.
Pity my father and mother who bore and reared me:
For witnessing partings and turmoil— this is the moment.
At gauze windows, looking into mirrors, I had not experienced the world;
I thought that the beaded curtains could shelter me.
One day the barbarian cavalry entered China;
Suddenly everywhere we met nomads.
My unfortunate life is now at sword's point,
Alas, a helpless woman carried away into the aliens' dust.

Edited 2021-09-06 09:27 (UTC)

Intro: Why are Wang Anshi and Wenji herself’s versions of these poems not a bigger deal? They’re not even linked from the wiki, are they even mentioned? Are these considered the best treatments to that extent?

Tfw the book goes with some fucking weird pinyin—what’s the t’ang dynasty, are you spelling it Sung dynasty bc it’s past tense, that’s not necessary bruv

It’s really interesting that people copied the painting very closely, rather than just doing their own thing?

So the calligraphy style is essentially a ‘font’ modelled after a particular Emperor’s handwriting? By the way: what do they mean when in NiF they say the emperor’s sister’s husband has a declaration in the Emperor’s own hand above their gate—it’s not like the emperor came and painted a sign. Does the emperor write on a board and then someone installs that board, or is his writing on paper enlarged and then his handwriting copied by an artist?

‘A Chinese’ this is always so weird

I’m really kind of shocked she’s going to walk away from young children? Like it makes sense in a Chopin ‘Awakening’ way, but it’s not at all what I expect to happen in this kind of story.

Here’s a thing about how the ‘flute’ is actually a stringed instrument, just to destabilise Yinharn’s worldview.

1. Kinda poignant treatment of the structure of the interior courtyard (is that the right term for like—civilian rear palace?) as a structure she assumed she could trust, of violated containment/chastity. In a way she’ll have more freedom on the steppe even in being a captive, but what’s the point of being Freer in a really circumscribed world she can’t even communicate in?

Does this guy next to the chief have a leopard pelt? How?

Really cool detail work on these roof beams

This horse armour looks shit like it’s just a blanket

For posterity, it's all standard wade-giles romanisation, which makes sense since this book is from the 70s.

I googled and I'm pretty sure the 'nomad flute' is 胡笳 (from the Chinese title, 胡笳十八拍/Hújiā Shíbā Pāi) which seems to be a kind of reeded woodwind instrument - baidu entry is here, and here's a bilibili video of someone playing one.

Yeah people made 'fonts' sortof of famous calligraphers, and there seem to have been a lot of emperors who were considered great at the calligraphy business. When you're learning chinese calligraphy now you still copy a lot of the works of the old masters; sometimes they were literally carved into stones and stuff. Using a template?

It's so weird that the authors never mention the like...racism inherent in viewing the Xiongnu as unwashed barbarians but repeat it without comment.

This first poem is probably my favourite: I wish I knew more about what the gauze windows and beaded curtains are about.

Edited 2021-09-12 20:32 (UTC)

Huh, Baike actually has NO gloss at all for this set of poems, though they have a bunch of articles on Wenji's life and the other media that are based on it.

I'm a bit surprised that the book mentions that the copying was done by tracing and filling in. It would seem opposed to all the 'one stroke only' calligraphy I was taught, where you practice by copying over and over? Why is the scribe incapable of copying it freehand.

Haven't gone through everything yet but I read this some time ago on different depictions of Wenji's abduction and return:

'To the Chinese, Wenji was a heroine who never wavered in her loyalty
to China, and her story was celebrated in paintings and poems throughout
successive dynasties. The Wenji legend was revived in the eighth century by
the Tang poet Liu Shang and again in the Song in a poem by the famous
statesman Wang Anshi (1021–1086). In pictorial representations of the poems,
tribesmen in the nomad camp where she was taken strongly resemble contemporary
Kitan. Wenji enthusiasm reached a new high in the twelfth century,
when the Song empress dowager, who had been captured by the Jin at the fall
of the northern capital, was allowed to return to the Song court—giving rise
to more paintings and poems recalling Wenji’s story. Clearly, for the Song
the main motif of the Wenji story was her loyalty and eventual return.
To the horse-riding pastoralists of the northern frontiers, however, the
Wenji story had a different meaning. Wenji and women like her mediated between
the two worlds of the steppe and China. A short Jin-dynasty hand scroll
depicting Wenji’s return is illustrated in figure I.1. The scroll is dated between 1200 and 1209 and was executed by a Jin court artist, painted in color on silk. In the painting, Wenji is shown on her way back to the capital accompanied
by servants in Jurchen costume. She is portrayed as a middle-aged
matron riding with the ease of experience and a firm foot in the stirrup. The
wind that forces the other figures in the work to shield their faces is welcome
to Wenji, who alone faces it without protection. The Wenji of this painting is
a heroic figure, emotionally and physically courageous. She was also a mother
who had been forced to leave her two sons behind. Her loss is poignantly suggested
by the foal accompanying the lead mare; even so lowly a creature as a
horse could bring her child with her while Wenji was alone. Courage—as well as good horsemanship—were qualities that characterized Liao and Jin heroines,
as shown in the succeeding chapters.

Wenji is depicted in Jurchen attire, with a fur hat, ribbons, a belted jacket,
skirt, pantaloons, and high boots. She wears the Jin imperial color yellow (now
faded). By the date of the painting, the tribal or “raw” Jurchen had become
so peripheralized and alien in Jin society that they could stand in as the “barbarians” who had abducted Wenji. As art historian Susan Bush has pointed
out, the painting may have been intended as a moral exemplar for women in
the imperial household. Wenji’s depiction as a mounted warrior woman reflects
the martial roles for women in Liao and Jin cultures, while the implicit
messages she bears, loyalty and filial piety, can be understood with reference
to the twelfth-century Jin state, which in this representation allegorically represented the Han state, the epitome of a civilized Chinese cultural entity, to
which the Jin considered itself equivalent.'

That's from 'Women of the Conquest Dynasties'

第二拍 (5 columns in standard script)
馬上將余向絕域，厭生求死死不得。
戎羯腥膻豈似人，豺狼喜怒難姑息。
行盡天山足霜霰，風土蕭條近胡國。
萬里重陰鳥不飛，寒沙莽莽無南北。

I was taken on horseback to the ends of the earth;
Tiring of life, I sought death, but death would not come.
The barbarians stink so. How can they be considered human?
Their pleasures and angers are like the jackal's and the wolf s— how
unbearable!
We travel to the end of Tien-shan,* enduring all the frost and sleet;
The customs are rude, the land is desolate— we are near the nomads'
territories.
An overcast sky stretches beyond ten thousand miles. Not a single bird
is in sight.
The cold sands are boundless: one can no longer tell the south
from the north.

* Mountains in the far west, in modern Sinkiang province. This is figurative
speech; Wen-chi's party did not go that far west.

Edited 2021-09-06 09:07 (UTC)

So I guess she’s contemplating or actively attempting self-slaughter. Also we’re up in the Gobi desert?

Are these directional colours the fucking element wheel thing from the other day?

‘Blaze’, ‘remount’,

What’s this dumb parasol thing?

man EVERYONE has cheetah shit

Tiger hide too—what’s the white fur?

Maybe the music players are doing work songs to keep the travellers together, in step

Interesting embroidery on some of the horse blanket things

Good job visually evoking bleakness

I'm not super sure how they know her party didn't go all the way to the edge of the Tianshan mountains? Like, the western side is solidly in southern Xionghu territory as far as I can make out.

Yeah red/green/yellow/white/black (dark blue) are the 5 element colours. I'd put a picture here if I had any idea how to do that in comments on dreamwidth.

The last couplet rhymes and has a pleasing weight even in modern mandarin, that's nice.

I'm not sure how I feel about this translation - "豺狼喜怒難姑息" well 豺狼 is straight up a word for 'evil/cruel people' dating from at least the Song dynasty and 姑息 seems more likely to be 'appease' in this context? like "the pleasure and passion of wolves and jackals are difficult to appease' like it isn't reeeeeally a metaphor it's obvious that the wolves and jackals are the Xiongnu.

I guess the TL is trying to follow her anger? So taking the 'difficult to tolerate' meaning instead.

Yeah, on second read I'm not bothered by this and more bothered by the general phrasing.

Like this isn't - I don't want it to be like, Vorvayne arrives in the chat with their weekly complaints about translation, I just learn things when I try to pick them apart.

第三拍 (5 columns in standard script)
如羈囚兮在縲紲，憂慮萬端無處說。
使余力兮翦余髮，食余肉兮飲余血。
誠知殺身願如此，以余為妻不如死。
早被蛾眉累此身，空悲弱質柔如水。

I am like a prisoner in bonds,
I have ten thousand anxieties but no one to confide them to.
They can make me work, or they can cut my hair;
They can eat my flesh, and they can drink my blood.
Knowing this is death, I would suffer anything willingly,
make me his wife is worse than killing me.
Alas, how a pretty face has made me suffer,
How I resent it that I am weak and soft like water.

Edited 2021-09-06 09:08 (UTC)

Are we getting into some blood libel type stuff here, is that a whole thing?

It’s very metal, I will for sure use this in a fic

I never quite know what gauze means re hats in this context

I guess you can tell the gender of random figures by the tonsure or lack thereof

Again good job on evoking a sense of nothingness outside the encampment

Btw, fairly dodgy that the book seems to suggest she should be Nicer to the captor/rapist who uh, killed much of her city and personal household.

Edited 2021-09-06 09:26 (UTC)

Similar motif in Song general Yue Fei's Man Jiang Hong (poem here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Jiang_Hong): 'There we shall feast on barbarian flesh and drink the blood of the Xiongnu.'

Interesting slippage here, between 'I don't care what the barbarians do, they can eat me if they like' to 'let's eat the barbarian enemy'; it makes me wonder about the historical roles cannibalism or figurations thereof played in these spaces.

Fascinating that the art appears to portray the captors as treating her well though, since you'd think it'd be as Han biased as the text?

Once again, suspicious of the translation

how the f did they get "knowing this is death, I would suffer anything willingly" from "誠知殺身願如此"???

Like I'm not sure whether in this context 誠 is more likely to be 'truly, really' or 'if indeed...' (or possibly even 'moral wholeness/integrity'? Tho grammatically that seems sus)

But genuinely does this not say something more like "If I knew how to kill myself, I would be willing to do it"??? V unsure and willing to be wrong; I could baidu it but my eyes are wavering.

"空悲弱質柔如水" no but more "in vain I grieve my weak nature, as yeilding as water". if yr local barely educated gremlin can summon up a line that goes harder than your translation then I have like, questions.

You're right tho this one is METAL. Parsing this is getting difficult for me; there are loads of two-character words! In poetry! Illegal, probably - this one has less of that so I like it.

第四拍 (5 columns in standard script)
山川路長誰記得，何處天涯是鄉國？
自從驚怖少精神，不覺風霜損顏色。
夜中歸夢來又去，朦朧豈解傳消息。
漫漫胡天叫不聞，明明漢月應相識。

Mountains and streams a long way away— who can remember them?
Where, at the sky's edge, is my native land?
Since my terrifying experience my energy has faded.
Gradually, wind and frost have ravaged my countenance.
In the night I dream of returning, to and fro;
In my half-dreaming state is it possible that some messages may be
transmitted?
In the vast barbarian sky my cries are not answered.
Yet the bright moon is my Han moon, which should recognize me.

Edited 2021-09-06 09:08 (UTC)

Interesting description of her depression in captivity.

I wonder what the theory of mind re: dreams as a communication space is, like is this wholly a flight of fancy or sort of how the poet believes dreams can work?

'Han' seems to have both geographical and ethnic connotations at once.

The main tent has a different-coloured top now, maybe thicker for the colder months.

['Han' seems to have both geographical and ethnic connotations at once.]

OOOOF this is. This is. The world's BIGGEST understatement!!!

Worth noting that this is a bit of a wobbly translation: the original uses 豈 which is for 'rhetorical questions or questions where the speaker knows that what is being asked is unlikely or impossible'.

Edited 2021-09-12 21:42 (UTC)

The line about the half-dreaming state is also about moonlight: technically 朦朧 means like "diffuse moonlight, shining through clouds" so maybe she's hoping the moon will hear her prayers even if the sky won't.

Which is maaaaaybe a Chang'e reference given the moon later; in some older versions of the story Chang'e drinks the elixir of immortality and flees to the moon to escape her husband. Which. You know. Relevant, perhaps.

How the f did they get 'gradually' from '不覺' tho. Surely like 'while I was unaware, the wind and frost...'

第五拍 (5 columns in standard script)
水頭宿兮草頭坐，風吹漢地衣裳破。
羊脂沐髮長不梳，羔子皮裘領仍左。
狐襟貉袖腥復膻，晝披行兮夜披臥。
氈帳時移無定居，日月長兮不可過。

I sleep by water and sit on grass;
The wind that blows from China tears my clothing to pieces.
I clean my hair with mutton fat, but it is seldom combed.
The collar of my lambskin robe is buttoned on the left;*
The fox lapels and badger sleeves are rank-smelling.
By day I wear these clothes, by night I sleep in them.
The felt screens are constantly being moved, since there is no fixed
abode;
How long my days and nights are— they never seem to pass.

* Barbarian-style.

Edited 2021-09-06 09:08 (UTC)

"I clean my hair with mutton fat" so she's oiling it, this is what they're using as a conditioner up here?

"The fox lapels and badger sleeves are rank-smelling." because she just doesn't like the smell, because they're poorly-made, or because everyone is sleeping in them day-in, day-out?

"its warming bowl" so you drink the wine hot?

So I guess these guys have cows along in the travelling party.

oh the tent has a little skylight

I didn't notice the dragon finials on this tarp before

Husband seems to be lecturing her about something, some 'cheer up, love! it might never happen!' shit?

What's with high boots/rucked up robes guy?

Idk about the Xiongnu but drinking wine hot is (was?) a thing esp if you're sick or I mean if it's cold, which presumably it is where she is.

Rucked up robes guy seems to be "The man walking from the cooking area shows us how this horse-riding people managed its long robes on less than formal occasions."

第六拍 (5 columns in standard script)
怪得春光不來久，胡中風土無花柳。
天翻地覆誰得知，如今正南看北斗。
姓名音信兩不通，終日經年常閉口。
是非取與在指撝，言語傳情不如手。

I resent it that spring is so short here;
In the nomad land there are few flowers or willows.
Who knows if heaven and earth have not been turned upside down?
Here we see the Great Dipper in the south.
Since our names, sounds, and signals are wholly different,
All day and all year I keep my mouth closed.
"Yes" and "no" and accepting and giving things away all depend on
finger gestures;
For expressing our feelings, speech has become less useful than the hand.

Edited 2021-09-06 09:09 (UTC)

So she's been here for some time but hasn't really learned the language yet. It is all sounding deeply alienating and depressing on an almost existential scale, re: not even knowing if seasons are still happening, but at the same time she has to be one of the most privileged people in her new context?

Qin (?) carrying girl is back.

What is Husband pointing at? Is it also the dipper she's observing?

I guess in a way she's the Dipper, removed from her surroundings and untouchable and fixed.

I wonder if the language thing is stubbornness? You'd think that basic proficiency would be in reach if you're totally immersed?

I was thinking about this too - or, has no one bothered to try and teach her? I mean I know what *my* brain would do if I was immersed but if no one like does some gestures with you to teach you yes/no and points at stuff and names it and like makes an effort, then yeah you might not pick it up.

For the record, here's a Discord conversation some of us had about the week's poems:

Vorvayne: Reading through the intro to the poems determinedly annotating everything with the pinyin
Hate to say it but wade giles makes sense tho
Like it's really systematic and there's no fussing about whether your i is an eeee or an ih sound because they're written differently
The places where it makes no sense are places where the pronounciation has literally changed in the intervening century
Hm guess she really doesn't like being a captured princess, what a shock
x_los: oh WAIT for the coming weeks which stress how much! she struggles with leaving! her husband!!!!!
and like evidence of this in text:
arguably 1 line
in 18 poems
and it is ARGUABLE
and I'm like ???????
at hoooow easily the commentators are like yeah she loves him
I mean ladies do, right? that's a lady thing
douqi: What's the positionality of the commentators?
Are they like contemporaneous Han people? Or, like, modern-day people
x_los: modern (well, 1974?)
like these are tang poems about a han subject
and then the commentary is 1974
but also I think everyone but the og subject is a dude
and she wrote her own poems, and wang anshi wrote a treatment of the theme, but I can't find either
douqi: The prevailing Tang view I thought would be 'well OF COURSE she wants to leave him and come back'
x_los: this is apparently the most famous one bc of the scroll
yeah that's true I think
there's not a LOT about him
he's more present pictorially
than in the lit
and even in the pics she's always like--looking AWAY from him
up at the moon or whatever the fuck
a goose
some self-harm she's doing to maybe communicate via a goose
douqi: The goose is a motif
Zhaojun, another Han diplomatic bride, was said to be so beautiful that the geese fell out of the sky looking at her as she crossed the border https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Zhaojun
"Wang Zhaojun
Wang Qiang (Wang Ch'iang; 王牆, also 王檣 and 王嬙), commonly known by her courtesy name Wang Zhaojun (Chinese: 王昭君; Wade–Giles: Wang Chao-chun) was known as one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. Born in Baoping Village, Zigui County (in current Hubei Province) in the Western Han dynasty (206 BC–8 AD), she was sent by Emperor Yuan to marry Chanyu..."

x_los: fffff
what a tribute like
'that goose DIED... because I was so hot'
douqi: This is the most metal one
Xi Shi had sinking fish
Which is a bit ehhhh
The Liao/Jin take on Wenji's return is interesting too
Isn't it fun that basically everyone gets to argue over what her experience was like
And use her in their own nation/culture-building projects
x_los: like do we just not /have/ her poems on it or have they simply not been translated or have they been somewhere I can't find?
douqi: We have hers on it: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%82%B2%E6%84%A4%E8%AF%97/5383786?lemmaId=6785&lemmaTitle=%E8%94%A1%E6%96%87%E5%A7%AC&bk_fr=chain_bottom×tamp=1631455953855
Don't know if translated
It seems to have been the only bit of her writing that's been handed down
x_los: it'd be nice to have somewhere like, a sourcebook/parallel treatment over time, with context, like that'd be a neat study
douqi: There seems to be more in this about her grief at parting from her children
She doesn't seem to mention the husband specifically
The kids take up quite a bit of verse time
The actual 'living here is truly miserable' takes up surprisingly little verse time
x_los: huh bc the tang is ROLLLING in that
like still sucks shit that I can smell sheep fat
so fucking gross, so fucking bored
Vorvayne: Oh wow
I can't read all of it but like
Is it just me or is it a whoooole lot grimmer and more direct than the Tang retelling?
douqi: It is very direct
Vorvayne: She's not fucking around

Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: Poems 1-6

1. The Abduction of Wen-chi

Re: 1. The Abduction of Wen-chi

Re: 1. The Abduction of Wen-chi

Re: 1. The Abduction of Wen-chi

Re: 1. The Abduction of Wen-chi

2. Departure from China

Re: 2. Departure from China

Re: 2. Departure from China

Re: 2. Departure from China

Re: 2. Departure from China

3. Encampment in the Desert

Re: 3. Encampment in the Desert

Re: 3. Encampment in the Desert

Re: 3. Encampment in the Desert

Re: 3. Encampment in the Desert

Re: 3. Encampment in the Desert

4. Longing for Home

Re: 4. Longing for Home

Re: 4. Longing for Home

Re: 4. Longing for Home

5. Encampment by a Stream

Re: 5. Encampment by a Stream

Re: 5. Encampment by a Stream

Re: 5. Encampment by a Stream

6. The Constellation of the Dipper

Re: 6. The Constellation of the Dipper

Re: 6. The Constellation of the Dipper

Re: 6. The Constellation of the Dipper

no subject