Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: Poems 1-6

[x_los]

Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute is "a series of Chinese songs and poems about the life of Han Dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) poet Cai Wenji[;] the songs were composed by Liu Shang, a poet of the middle Tang Dynasty. Later Emperor Gaozong of Song (1107–1187) commissioned a handscroll with the songs accompanied by 18 painted scenes." 

This week, we're reading poems 1-6, up to page 40, in this collection. Because of the nature of the book in question, I'll ask you to refer here for Chinese and English copies of the poems and the images together.

You can view the scroll as a whole more easily and read some background on the Met's website; the Wiki page will also help orient you.  

This is the first of three weeks we'll be spending on this collection. I'll link us to some additional background information in the coming weeks, once we've had a chance to orient ourselves; this is the first time the piece we're looking at has come with its own explanatory material, and that's a sound starting-point. 

Comments

6. The Constellation of the Dipper

[x_los]

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.

Re: 6. The Constellation of the Dipper

[x_los]

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.

Re: 6. The Constellation of the Dipper

[superborb]

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

Re: 6. The Constellation of the Dipper

[vorvayne]

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.