Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: Poems 13-18

[x_los]

 This week, we're reading poems 13-18 in, and thus finishing up, 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. In case it's useful, here is a plain-text version of the scroll. 

This is the final week we'll be spending on this poem cycle. Please check the previous two entries if you'd like further background information.

Comments

15. The Nomad Husband Turns Back

[x_los]

第十五拍 (5 columns in standard script)
歎息襟懷無定分，當時怨來歸又恨。
不知愁怨情若何，似有鋒鋩擾方寸。
悲歡並行情未快，心意相尤自相問。
不緣生得天屬親，豈向仇讎結恩信 。

I sigh that my feelings are undefined:
I was grieved then by coming away, and now I hate returning;
I no longer understand such emotions of worry and sorrow,
And I feel only a sharp knife stabbing at my heart.
Sorrow mixed with joy is not a happy feeling.
My thoughts are at cross-purposes. I keep asking myself this:
Unless it was fate that preordained such a marriage,
How could I have become bound to my enemy in love and trust?

Re: 15. The Nomad Husband Turns Back

[x_los]

This is the first and only time she seems to possibly mention her husband (and she may just be talking about their shared kids) in a positive light. It’s interesting that the gloss materials are determined to infer closeness between them. I don’t believe they even think it’s a Project of theirs, they’re just highly assumptive regarding women’s attitudes towards their ‘husbands’. Arguably it does increase the poignancy of the piece if the captor and captive have positive feelings for one another, but that’s not necessarily something I’d take on trust, given that the period between Wenji’s extreme depression and her ransom doesn’t illustrate any great acceptance of this life or this man.

Wenji struggling to make sense of not just her ambivalent present, but of the meaning of this twelve-year period in the whole course of her life.

The dappled grey and white horses are cool; the husband and youngest child looking back is good. The older son’s expression of mourning is more like Wenji’s.

I don’t know that I got before that this husband is supposed to be the same guy as initially abducted her.

Re: 15. The Nomad Husband Turns Back

[superborb]

Does the gloss say that much about their relationship? Not sure if I'm missing something?

It's interesting that when her (new) husband gets in trouble later, she defends him by asking Cao Cao if he can provide her with another husband. Since she was married before the abduction as well, the Xiongnu chieftain isn't her first 'husband'.

Re: 15. The Nomad Husband Turns Back

[x_los]

A lot of fragmentary, small things.

"she was married before the abduction as well" oh I did NOT get that from this, huh, or understand she remarried. Interesting.