![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Little Primer of Du Fu, Poems 1-5
This 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.
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.