Sep. 30th, 2021 10:21 pm
Little Primer of Du Fu, Poems 1-5
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dankodesThis week we start David Hawkes' Little Primer of Du Fu. I'll replicate the poems themselves here, but this book contains considerable exegesis, so I do advise you to grab this copy.
Because this exegesis is relatively substantial, let's start by reading poems 1 through 5, inclusive. There are 35 poems in the collection, so this should take us about seven weeks (unless we scale either up or down, after speaking about it).
I'm gathering additional research materials, but for this first week I'd like us to concentrate on Hawkes' introduction and the first of these poems.
Because this exegesis is relatively substantial, let's start by reading poems 1 through 5, inclusive. There are 35 poems in the collection, so this should take us about seven weeks (unless we scale either up or down, after speaking about it).
I'm gathering additional research materials, but for this first week I'd like us to concentrate on Hawkes' introduction and the first of these poems.
Tags:
1.望嶽 Wàng yuè
Wàng yuè
岱 宗 夫 如 何
1. Dài-zōng fū rú-hé?
齊 魯 青 未 了
2. Qí Lǔ qīng wèi liǎo.
造 化 鍾 神 秀
3. Zào-huà zhōng shén xiù,
陰 陽 割 昏 曉
4. Yīn yáng gē hūn xiǎo.
盪 胸 生 層 雲
5. Dàng xiōng shēng céng yún,
決 眥 入 歸 鳥
6. Jué zì rù guī niǎo.
會 當 凌 絕 頂
7. Huì-dāng líng jué dǐng,
一 覽 眾 山 小
8. Yì-lǎn zhòng-shān xiǎo!”
Read Aloud: https://youtu.be/dwn4MLeLK3c
On a Prospect of T’ai-shan
How is one to describe this king of mountains? Throughout the whole of Ch’i and Lu one never loses sight of its greenness. In it the Creator has concentrated all that is numinous and beautiful. Its northern and southern slopes divide the dawn from the dark. The layered clouds begin at the climber’s heaving chest, and homing birds fly suddenly within range of his straining eyes. One day I must stand on top of its highest peak and at a single glance see all the other mountains grown tiny beneath me.
Re: 1.望嶽 Wàng yuè
Oh I didn’t know this about the WAY Yue can mean mountain. relevant to characters with this surname?
Nice point about noon versus verb title
euphony /ˈjuːf(ə)ni/ the quality of being pleasing to the ear."the poet put euphony before mere factuality" the tendency to make phonetic change for ease of pronunciation.
I do wish he pushed the poems to the front of these chapters!
“Jué zì rù guī niǎo Bursting eye-sockets enter returning birds” Du Fu wtf
Did not know that about grammatical inflections and word order
“The layered clouds begin at the climber’s heaving chest,” So it’s so high this happens?
Re: 1.望嶽 Wàng yuè
Re: 1.望嶽 Wàng yuè
Re: 1.望嶽 Wàng yuè
PS Anon comment above is also me.
Re: 1.望嶽 Wàng yuè
"c is like ‘ts’ in ‘tsetse fly’"
Is this a word people generally know how to pronounce!
Also, I do not find the mix of various romanticization strategies to be more comprehensible, but okay.
Baike glosses that the 'divide the dawn from the dark' is that the mountain is so high that its north and south have different levels of brightness
Baike also tries to justify the 夫, which is some kind of modal particle, yet reading it just made me more confused about what it's doing there. It doesn't have a meaning, and is needed for ... vivid portrayal? a unique deftness????
Re: 1.望嶽 Wàng yuè
Re names, I was thinking about whether Meishan Yue is this Yue.
Good point re light and dark.
夫 is probably just to make the pentasyllabic and then like, inflection-based meter work, right? (I'm sure there's something Hawkes said was the poetic equivalent of the English stressed and unstressed in fuctional terms, but not sure it was called 'inflection'--whatever that was).
Re: 1.望嶽 Wàng yuè
2. 兵車行 Bīng-chē xíng
Bīng-chē xíng
車 轔 轔
1. Chē lín-lín,
馬 蕭 蕭
2. Mǎ xiāo-xiāo,
行 人 弓 箭 各 在 腰
3. Xíng-rén gōng-jiàn gè zài yāo,
爺 孃 妻 子 走 相 送
4. Yé-niáng qī-zǐ zǒu xiāng-sòng,
塵 埃 不 見 咸 陽 橋
5. Chén-āi bú jiàn Xián-yáng-qiáo.
牽 衣 頓 足 攔 道 哭
6. Qiān yī dùn zú lán dào kū,
哭 聲 直 上 干 雲 霄
7. Kū-shēng zhí-shàng gān yún-xiāo.
道 旁 過 者 問 行 人
8. Dào-páng guò-zhě wèn xíng-rén,
“行 人 但 云 點 行 頻
9. Xíng-rén dàn yún: ‘Diǎn-xíng pín.
或 從 十 五 北 防 河
10. ‘Huò cóng shí-wǔ běi fáng Hé,
便 至 四 十 西 營 田
11. ‘Biàn zhì sì-shí xī yíng-tián.
去 時 里 正 與 裹 頭
12. ‘Qù shí lǐ-zhèng yǔ guǒ tóu,
歸 來 頭 白 還 戍 邊
13. ‘Guī-lái tóu bái huán shù-biān.
邊 亭 流 血 成 海 水”
14. ‘Biān-tíng liú-xuè chéng hǎi-shuǐ,
武 皇 開 邊 意 未 已
15. ‘Wǔ-huáng kāi-biān yì wèi yǐ.
君 不 聞 漢 家 山 東 二 百 州
16. ‘Jūn bù wén Hàn-jiā shān-dōng èr-bǎi zhōu,
千 村 萬 落 生 荊 杞
17. ‘Qiān cūn wàn luò shēng jīng qǐ.
縱 有 健 婦 把 鋤 犂
18. ‘Zòng yǒu jiàn fù bǎ chú lí,
禾 生 隴 畝 無 東 西
19. ‘Hé shēng lǒng-mǔ wú dōng xī.
況 復 秦 兵 耐 苦 戰
20. ‘Kuàng fù Qín bīng nài kǔ-zhàn,
被 驅 不 異 犬 與 雞
21. ‘Bèi qū bú-yì quǎn yǔ jī.
長 者 雖 有 問
22. ‘Zhǎng-zhě suī yǒu wèn,
役 夫 敢 申 恨
23. ‘Yì-fū gǎn shēn-hèn?
且 如 今 年 冬
24.‘Qiě-rú jīn-nián dōng,”
未 休 關 西 卒
25. ‘Wèi xiū Guān-xī zú.
縣 官 急 索 租
26. ‘Xiàn-guān jí suǒ zū,
租 稅 從 何 出
27. ‘Zū-shuì cóng-hé chū?
信 知 生 男 惡
28. ‘Xìn zhī shēng nán è,
反 是 生 女 好
29. ‘Fǎn-shì shēng nǚ hǎo;
生 女 猶 得 嫁 比 鄰
30. ‘Shēng nǚ yóu dé jià bǐ-lín,
生 男 埋 沒 隨 百 草
31. ‘Shēng nán mái-mò suí bǎi-cǎo.
君 不 見 青 海 頭
32. ‘Jūn bú jiàn Qīng-hǎi tóu,
古 來 白 骨 無 人 收
33. ‘Gǔ-lái bái-gǔ wú-rén shōu,
新 鬼 煩 怨 舊 鬼 哭
34. ‘Xīn guǐ fán-yuàn jiù guǐ kū,
天 陰 雨 溼 聲 啾 啾
35. ‘Tiān yīn yǔ shī shēng jiū-jiū.
Read Aloud: https://www.bilibili.com/s/video/BV1sh41197cL
Ballad of the Army Carts
The carts squeak and trundle, the horses whinny, the conscripts go by, each with a bow and arrows at his waist. Their fathers, mothers, wives, and children run along beside them to see them off. The Hsien-yang Bridge cannot be seen for dust. They pluck at the men’s clothes, stamp their feet, or stand in the way weeping. The sound of their weeping seems to mount up to the blue sky above. A passer-by questions the conscripts, and the conscripts reply:
‘They’re always mobilizing now! There are some of us who went north at fifteen to garrison the River and who are still, at forty, being sent to the Military Settlements in the west. When we left as lads, the village headman had to tie our headcloths for us. We came back white-haired, but still we have to go back for frontier duty! On those frontier posts enough blood has flowed to fill the sea; but the Martial Emperor’s dreams of expansion remain unsatisfied. Haven’t you heard, sir, in our land of Han, throughout the two hundred prefectures east of the mountains briers and brambles are growing in thousands of little hamlets; and though many a sturdy wife turns her own hand to the hoeing and ploughing, the crops grow just anywhere, and you can’t see where one field ends and the next begins? And it’s even worse for the men from Ch’in. Because they make such good fighters, they are driven about this way and that like so many dogs or chickens.
‘Though you are good enough to ask us, sir, it’s not for the likes of us to complain. But take this winter, now. The Kuan-hsi troops are not being demobilized. The District Officers press for the land-tax, but where is it to come from? I really believe it’s a misfortune to have sons. It’s actually better to have a daughter. If you have a daughter, you can at least marry her off to one of the neighbours; but a son is born only to end up lying in the grass somewhere, dead and unburied. Why look, sir, on the shores of the Kokonor the bleached bones have lain for many a long year, but no one has ever gathered them up. The new ghosts complain and the old ghosts weep, and under the grey and dripping sky the air is full of their baleful twitterings.
Re: 2. 兵車行 Bīng-chē xíng
“I’m so fucking mad never has anything sounded less like the letters used to describe it
https://youtu.be/orQEwNYljio
I thought only Wales could fuck me over like this
Does this guy have an accent or do words have no meaning
Xing ren is said ‘huang yan??’ what kind of establishment are they running. I would like to speak to the manager of pinyin.
OH THANK GOD it was Canto that’s why only some words made sense to me based off phonetics I know at all phew PHEW”
So you know, only do that—with caution.
In (Mandarin) recitation, this feels like it has iambs almost? I caught my fingers moving up and down on the tracking pad, expecting the movement of the line.
““xíng is a type of ballad” is this then a different sing from ‘how to read chinese poetry’’s xing, which was either the nature image the poem used to establish its mood or juxtapose its core content or the turn between the two components?
“Po Chüi’s famous ‘Song of Everlasting Grief’”: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Song_of_Everlasting_Regret We read this one! https://dankodes.dreamwidth.org/9382.html
how the fuck do they get Po Chüi from Bai Juyi?
“Rather it is a completely original poem written in the ballad style.” Is that common?
Fascinating point about the Book of Odes’ reputation
enclitic /ɪnˈklɪtɪk,ɛnˈklɪtɪk/ a word pronounced with so little emphasis that it is shortened and forms part of the preceding word, for example n't in can't.
hendiadys /hɛnˈdʌɪədɪs/ the expression of a single idea by two words connected with ‘and’, e.g. nice and warm, when one could be used to modify the other, as in nicely warm.
“Lǒng-mǔ: lǒng on its own is used of the baulks of earth which divide the fields in the Chinese countryside.” Like hedgerows but raised dirt?
“Note that Chinese frequently uses a rhetorical question where in English we would use a negative statement. The oddity of much translation from the Chinese is due to the failure of translators to make allowance for this fact. It isn’t English to say ‘Dare I tell you?’ when we mean ‘I dare not tell you’.” An interesting note!
“Bǎi-cǎo: the ‘hundred’ in such expressions is really little more than a plural prefix: ‘the grasses of the field’.” and this
Kokonor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai_Lake
“Jiū-jiū” didn’t this crop up in shi jing too?
Re: 2. 兵車行 Bīng-chē xíng
Re: 2. 兵車行 Bīng-chē xíng
Plural prefix is a better term than 'imaginary number' for this phenomenon, but Cocoa's suggestion of indefinite number is definitely the precise term.
I've decided I'm not a fan of the method of translating each character with minimal grammatical correction. It's confusing to me.
Baike notes:
This is part of the Yuefu movement (which Hawkes calls ballads).
The "fathers, mothers, wives, and children" shows the age range of the conscripts, both the young (with parents sending them off) and the older (with children)
Could be satirizing two different campaigns against the Tubo or against the Nanzhao.
Re: 2. 兵車行 Bīng-chē xíng
That's a good point re: the age range.
Re: 2. 兵車行 Bīng-chē xíng
3. 麗人行 Lì-rén xíng
Lì-rén xíng
三 月 三 日 天 氣 新
1. Sān-yuè sān-rì tiān-qì xīn,
長 安 水 邊 多 麗 人
2. Cháng-ān shuǐ-biān duō lì-rén.
態 濃 意 遠 淑 且 真
3. Tài nóng yì yuǎn shū qiě zhēn,
肌 理 細 膩 骨 肉 勻
4. Jī-lǐ xì-nì gǔ-ròu yún.
繡 羅 衣 裳 照 暮 春
5. Xiù-luó yī-shang zhào mù-chūn,
蹙 金 孔 雀 銀 麒 麟
6. Cù-jīn kǒng-què yín qí-lín.
頭 上 何 所 有
7. Tóu-shàng hé-suǒ yǒu?
翠 微 㔩 葉 垂 鬢 唇
8. Cuì-wēi è-yè chuí bìn-chún.
背 後 何 所 見”
9. Bèi-hòu hé-suǒ jiàn?
珠 壓 腰 衱 穩 稱 身
10. Zhū yà-yāo-jié wěn chèn shēn.
就 中 雲 幕 椒 房 親
11. Jiù-zhōng yún-mù jiāo-fáng qīn,
賜 名 大 國 虢 與 秦
12. Cì-míng dà guó Guó yǔ Qín.
紫 駞 之 峰 出 翠 釜
13. Zǐ tuó zhī fēng chū cuì fǔ,
水 精 之 盤 行 素 鱗
14. Shuǐ-jīng zhī pán xíng sù lín,
犀 筯 厭 飫 久 未 下
15. Xī-zhù yàn-yù jiǔ wèi xià,
鸞 刀 縷 切 空 紛 綸
16. Luán-dāo lǚ-qiē kōng fēn-lún.
黃 門 飛 鞚 不 動 塵
17. Huáng-mén fēi kòng bú dòng chén,
御 厨 絡 繹 送 八 珍
18. Yù-chú luò[…]”
簫 鼓 哀 吟 感 鬼 神
19. Xiāo-gǔ āi yín gǎn guǐ-shén,
賓 從 雜 遝 實 要 津
20. Bīn-cóng zá-tà shí yào-jīn,
後 來 鞍 馬 何 逡 巡
21. Hòu lái ān-mǎ hé qūn-xún!
當 軒 下 馬 入 錦 茵
22. Dāng xuān xià-mǎ rù jǐn-yīn.
楊 花 雪 落 覆 白 蘋
23. Yáng-huā xuě luò fù bái-pín,
青 鳥 飛 去 銜 紅 巾
24. Qīng-niǎo fēi-qù xián hóng jīn,
炙 手 可 熱 勢 絕 倫
25. Zhì-shǒu kě rè shì jué-lún,
慎 莫 近 前 丞 相 瞋
26. Shèn-mò jìn-qián chéng-xiàng chēn!
Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAGzDezKLFo
Ballad of Lovely Women
On the day of the Spring Festival, under a new, fresh sky, by the lakeside in Ch’ang-an are many lovely women. Their breeding and refinement can be seen in their elegant deportment and proud aloofness. All have the same delicate complexions and exquisitely proportioned figures. In the late spring air the peacocks in passement of gold thread and unicorns of silver thread glow on their dresses of embroidered silk. What do they wear on their heads? Bandeaux of kingfisher-feather jewellery which reach down to the front edges of their hair. And what do we see at their backs? Overskirts of pearl net, clinging to their graceful bodies.
Amongst these ladies are to be seen the relations of the Mistress of the Cloud Curtains and the Pepper-flower Apartments, ladies dignified by imperial favour with titles that were once the names of great states: Kuo and Ch’in. Purple camel-humps rise like hillocks from green-glazed cauldrons, and fish with gleaming scales are served on crystal dishes. But the chopsticks of rhinoceros-horn, sated with delicacies, are slow to begin their work, and the belled carving-knife which cuts those threadlike slices wastes its busy labours. Palace eunuchs gallop up in continuous succession, bearing delicacies from the imperial kitchens, the flying hooves of their horses seeming scarcely to touch the dust beneath them.
And now, with music of flutes and drums mournful enough to move the very gods, surrounded by a shoal of clients and followers, the very fountain-head of power, with what disdainful steps this last rider comes pacing! Arrived at the balustrade surrounding the pavilion, he dismounts and takes his place among the diners sitting on the patterned carpet. The willow-down falls like snow and settles on the white water-weed. A blue-bird flies off, bearing a lady’s red handkerchief in its beak. He wields a power you could warm your hands against, a power unequalled by any other man: beware of pressing forward within range of the Chief Minister’s displeasure!
Re: 3. 麗人行 Lì-rén xíng
fête champêtre /ˌfɛt ʃɒ̃ˈpɛtr(ə),French fɛt ʃɑ̃pɛtʀ/ noun an outdoor entertainment such as a garden party.
Ch’ang-an: I have never in my life seen it spelled Like This
“Tu Fu’s description of the scene contains just that mixture of admiration, envy, and disgust which exhibitions of high living and conspicuous consumption are liable to arouse in the bourgeois breast.” Ah yeah I thought that was the vibe! Hateration! in the dancery
Lustrations: Lustratio was an ancient Greek and ancient Roman purification ritual. It included a procession and in some circumstances the sacrifice of a pig (sus), a ram (ovis), and a bull (taurus) (suovetaurilia).
Okay so do they retain enough of a sense of this picnic as a purification ritual, and a commotion to the natural, that the extravagance and artifice are rather obscene?
Passement: an ornamental braid or decorative trimming resembling lace and made of gold, silver, or silk threads.
Bandeaux: a narrow band worn round the head to hold the hair in position.
“Roasted camel-hump” what the fuck
“Bā-zhēn: the Chinese have a passionate weakness for numbered categories. There is an ancient text which enumerates eight particularly delicious and costly dishes; but the expression is used here to mean simply ‘delicacies’. The number is not meant to be taken seriously.” Just like-—wake me up when the numbers mean anything
Frogbit is an attractive aquatic plant that floats on the surface of ponds, lakes and still waterways. Looking like a small water-lily
“an incestuous relationship with his cousin, the Duchess of Kuo.” Cousins are incest for them? “
Hsi Wang Mu, the Fairy Queen who rules over the Garden of Paradise in the Mountain of Kunlun” where can I learn more about this concept of fae?
billets-doux: love letters
Kingfisher-feathers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian-tsui
“And now, with music of flutes and drums mournful enough to move the very gods, ” yeah you can taste the sarcasm
Re: 3. 麗人行 Lì-rén xíng
Yang Kuei-fei (or Yang Guifei in contemporary pinyin) is of course the artist also known as Strangled Girl.
Paternal cousins sharing the same surname is incest. Maternal cousins not sharing the same surname is generally a highly acceptable marital prospect. This is not meant to make sense.
Re: 3. 麗人行 Lì-rén xíng
a somewhat similar incest regulation system is described in Golden Bough, organised around totem-assignment
Re: 3. 麗人行 Lì-rén xíng
Because of his confusing insistence on non-pinyin for names, Yang Guifei took me a few moments to associate correctly. This is a Me Problem, but it is still confusing every time. Maybe he should put the names in characters too >:(
The Double Third Festival: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Third_Festival
Baike notes:
This is on the eve of the Anshi rebellion, one of whose causes was the use of power by outside relatives (i.e. relatives who are not in the same family, so maternal or relations of the wife).
Baike agrees with Hawkes wrt stanza divisions.
Baike is very admiring of the use of concealed satire, not specifically speaking of the complaint and letting it emerge naturally.
Re: 3. 麗人行 Lì-rén xíng
Also its confusing that he translates the double third festival as "spring festival" because I generally see spring festival used to mean the two weeks after lunar new year.
4. 月夜 Yuè-yè
Yuè-yè
今 夜 鄜 州 月
1. Jīn-yè Fū-zhōu yuè,
閨 中 只 獨 看
2. Guī-zhōng zhǐ dú kān.
遙 憐 小 兒 女
3. Yáo lián xiǎo ér-nǚ,
未 解 憶 長 安
4. Wèi jiě yì Cháng-ān.
香 霧 雲 鬟 溼
5. Xiāng wù yún-huán shī,
清 輝 玉 臂 寒
6. Qīng huī yù-bì hán.
何 時 倚 虛 幌
7. Hé-shí yǐ xū huǎng,
雙 照 淚 痕 乾
8. Shuāng zhào lèi-hén gān?”
Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kntjN7i-ICY
Moonlit Night
Tonight in Fu-chou my wife will be watching this moon alone. I think with tenderness of my far-away little ones, too young to understand about their father in Ch’ang-an. My wife’s soft hair must be wet from the scented night-mist, and her white arms chilled by the cold moonlight. When shall we lean on the open casement together and gaze at the moon until the tears on our cheeks are dry?
Re: 4. 月夜 Yuè-yè
“The rules that we do need to remember when reading poems in Regulated Verse are (1) that the poem must be one of eight lines in four couplets; and (2) that the two middle couplets (lines 3–4 and lines 5–6) must each be antithetically arranged: i.e. line 4 must parallel line 3 in both grammar and meaning, and line 6 must parallel line 5 in the same way.”: Lol but that is nice to know
Without that explication I was not gonna understand those tears as happy
Re: 4. 月夜 Yuè-yè
I still don't understand why the tears are happy
Re: 4. 月夜 Yuè-yè
Re: 4. 月夜 Yuè-yè
Baike gives several cites of other poems that use the fragrance of the hair as a ... trope? And it's the fragranced ointment applied to the hair that gives it scent of course.
OH Baike's gloss / vernacular TL make it clear that it's happy tears because they've thinking of being reunited and shedding happy tears looking at the moon together.
Re: 4. 月夜 Yuè-yè
5. 哀王孫 Āi wáng-sūn
Āi wáng-sūn
長 安 城 頭 頭 白 烏
1. Cháng-ān chéng-tóu tóu-bái wū,
夜 飛 延 秋 門 上 呼
2. Yè fēi Yán-qiū-mén-shàng hū.
又 向 人 家 啄 大 屋”
3. Yòu xiàng rén-jiā zhuó dà-wū,
屋 底 達 官 走 避 胡
4. Wū-dǐ dá-guān zǒu bì hú.
金 鞭 斷 折 九 馬 死
5. Jīn biān duàn-zhé jiǔ mǎ sǐ,
骨 肉 不 得 同 馳 驅
6. Gǔ-ròu bū-dé tóng chí-qū.
腰 下 寶 玦 青 珊 瑚
7. Yāo-xià bǎo-jué qīng shān-hú,
可 憐 王 孫 泣 路 隅
8. Kě-lián wáng-sūn qì lù-yú.
問 之 不 肯 道 姓 名
9. Wèn zhī bù-kěn dào xìng-míng,
但 道 困 苦 乞 為 奴
10. Dàn dào kùn-kǔ qǐ wéi nú.
已 經 百 日 竄 荊 棘
11. Yǐ-jīng bǎi-rì cuàn jīng-jí,
身 上 無 有 完 肌 膚
12. Shēn-shàng wú-yǒu wán jī-fū.
高 帝 子 孫 盡 隆 準
13. Gāo-dì zǐ-sūn jìn lóng-zhǔn,
龍 種 自 與 常 人 殊
14. Lóng-zhǒng zì yǔ cháng-rén shū.
豺 狼 在 邑 龍 在 野
15. Chái-láng zài yì lóng zài yě,
王 孫 善 保 千 金 軀
16. Wáng-sūn shàn bǎo qiān-jīn qū!
不 敢 長 語 臨 交 衢
17. Bù-gǎn cháng-yǔ lín jiāo-qú,
且 為 王 孫 立 斯 須
18. Qiě wèi wáng-sūn lì sī-xū.
昨 夜 東 風 吹 血 腥
19. Zuó-yè dōng-fēng chuī xuè-xīng,
東 來 橐 駞 滿 舊 都
20. Dōng-lái tuó-tuó mǎn jiù-dū.
朔 方 健 兒 好 身 手
21. Shuò-fāng jiàn-ér hǎo shēn-shǒu,
昔 何 勇 銳 今 何 愚
22. Xī hé yǒng-ruì jīn hé yú!
竊 聞 天 子 已 傳 位
23. Qiè-wén tiān-zǐ yǐ chuán-wèi,
聖 德 北 服 南 單 于
24. Shèng-dé běi fú Nán-chán-yú,
花 門 剺 面 請 雪 恥”
25. Huā-mén lí-miàn qǐng xuě-chǐ.
慎 勿 出 口 他 人 狙
26. Shèn-wù chū-kǒu tā-rén jū!
哀 哉 王 孫 慎 勿 疏
27. Āi-zāi wáng-sūn shèn-wù shū!
五 陵 佳 氣 無 時 無
28. Wǔ-líng jiā-qì wú-shí wú!
Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXaBXTljeLU
The Unfortunate Prince
Hooded crows from the battlements of Ch’ang-an flew cawing by night over the Gate of Autumn and thence to the homes of men, pecking at the great roofs, warning the high ministers who dwelt beneath to flee from the barbarian. Golden whips were flailed until they snapped and the royal horses sank dead with exhaustion beneath them; but many of the Emperor’s own close kin were unable to gallop with him.
With a precious jade emblem and blue coral pendant at his waist, a pitiful young prince stands weeping at the corner of the street. Questioned, he is unwilling to tell me his name; he will only say that he is in great distress, and begs me to take him as my slave. He has already been lying in concealment for a hundred days amongst the thorn-bushes and has not a whole piece of skin on his body; but descendants of the August Emperor all have the imperial nose; the Seed of the Dragon are not as other men are.
Wolves and jackals now occupy the city; the dragons are out in the wilds: Your Highness must take care of his precious person! I dare not talk very long with you here beside the crossroads, but I will stand with Your Highness just a little while.
Last night the east wind carried a stench of blood and the ‘former capital’ was full of camels from the east. The Shuo-fang veterans were splendid soldiers. How bold and keen they were a while ago, and how foolish they look today! I’ve heard tell that the Son of Heaven has abdicated. And they say that in the North the Khan is so indebted for the favours shown him by his Sacred Majesty that at Hua-men he and all his warriors slashed their faces and vowed to wipe out this humiliation. But we must mind what we say, with so many spies about. Alas, poor prince! Be on your guard! May the protecting power that emanates from the Imperial Tombs go always with you!
Re: 5. 哀王孫 Āi wáng-sūn
Huh why not lament for the young prince
“Parks” why parks? Like—outdoor statuary? Was there a lot? How do you LOOT that?
“The executions were carried out publicly, the hearts of the condemned being torn from their bodies and offered in sacrifice to the ghost of An Ch’ing-tsung, a son of An Lu-shan who had been married to a princess of the imperial family, and whom the Emperor had put to death as a reprisal when An Lu-shan rebelled.” WOW wow wtfffff
“some of them by having the tops of their heads prised off with iron claws. ” The FUCK even is this
“while princes and princesses of the blood were callously left behind” I mean /his own grandkids??/ fuck
Yeah I think if Du Fu had truly played the encounter like this he’d have been too shamed to publicise it, and it doesn’t really fit with him having hauled *ass* across the country to offer his service. Also he’s already REALLY suffered in this invasion so he’s hardly like, untried. It is super interesting that he’d choose to adopt a weaselly persona!
“Notice that in Chinese verse it is usually the couplets not the lines which are end-stopped. Translators often come unstuck through ignorance of this simple rule.” Huh
“Gǔ-ròu, literally ‘bone and flesh’, is the Chinese equivalent of our ‘flesh and blood’ in expressions like ‘his own flesh and blood turned against him’.”: this feels like a wiki note like a thing that comes UP in webnovel translations Nephrite is one of the two distinct minerals commonly known as jade.
“a Han parallel is regularly employed by a T’ang poet when he wishes to speak of the T’ang sovereign or his family or affairs.” Who the fuck is alive and active enough to censor you??
Ordos loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordos_Plateau
“The honorifics and humilifics in which Chinese speech once abounded are not, of course, to be translated literally unless one is deliberately aiming at an exotic, ‘Kai Lung’ effect.” wow who's gonna tell webnovel translators
“Kai Lung (開龍) is a fictional character in a series of books by Ernest Bramah, consisting of The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900)” Hey so is this basically like—Pu Songling for and by white ppl?
Tumuli: an ancient burial mound; a barrow. “favours shown him by his Sacred Majesty that at Hua-men he and all his warriors slashed their faces and vowed to wipe out this humiliation.” I was NOT gonna get this without help
How does the tomb emanation work, in their magical conception thereof?
Re: 5. 哀王孫 Āi wáng-sūn
The nominal founder of the T’ang dynasty was as a matter of fact also called Kao-tsu, but I don’t think he had a particularly famous nose - Hawkes is mistaken here. Kao-tsu (or Gaozu in contemporary pinyin) is not a personal name; it's a temple name often given to the founder of a dynasty, hence why there are so many 'Gaozus' in Chinese history.
Re: 5. 哀王孫 Āi wáng-sūn
Re: 5. 哀王孫 Āi wáng-sūn
Baike glosses wangsun (which Hawkes speaks of as if it's the /literal/ emperor's grandson) as just descendants of princes/aristocrats.
In contrast to Hawkes saying that Du Fu must have felt indignation that the nobles were left behind, Baike is also very convinced that Du Fu normally detests the luxurious lifestyle led by nobles (and by extension, the nobles), and the sympathy he feels for the prince here is a human sentiment in contrast to his normal opinions.
Re: 5. 哀王孫 Āi wáng-sūn
But at the same time, a White Russian reading of Du Fu, which makes him accessible re like Chang Kai-Shek partisans, would be absolutely what we could expect the Anglo-sphere to arrive at.
Re: 5. 哀王孫 Āi wáng-sūn
There is also a cultural ideal of being the lone (or one of few) incorruptible officials in among the decadent nobility, which I can't help but feel would have shaped his self-image.