Oct. 4th, 2021 02:06 pm
Little Primer of Du Fu, Poems 6-10
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dankodesThis is week 2/7 on 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.
This week we're reading poems 6 through 10, inclusive.
How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context's Chapter 15, "Du Fu: The Poet as Historian", is relevant to Hawkes' focus. (Next week's Additional Readings are more focused on poetics.)
This week we're reading poems 6 through 10, inclusive.
How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context's Chapter 15, "Du Fu: The Poet as Historian", is relevant to Hawkes' focus. (Next week's Additional Readings are more focused on poetics.)
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7. 哀江頭 Āi jiāng-tóu
Āi jiāng-tóu
少 陵 野 老 吞 聲 哭
1. Shào-líng yě-lǎo tūn-shēng kū,
春 日 潛 行 曲 江 曲
2. Chūn-rì qián-xíng Qū-jiāng qū.
江 頭 宮 殿 鎖 千 門
3. Jiāng-tóu gōng-diàn suǒ qiān mén,
細 柳 新 蒲 為 誰 綠
4. Xì liǔ xīn pú wèi shuí lǜ?
憶 昔 霓 旌 下 南 苑
5. Yì xī ní-jīng xià Nán-yuàn,
苑 中 萬 物 生 顏 色
6. Yuàn-zhōng wàn-wù shēng yán-sè.
昭 陽 殿 裏 第 一 人
7. Zhāo-yáng-diàn-lǐ dì-yī rén,
同 輦 隨 君 侍 君 側
8. Tóng-niǎn suí jūn shì jūn cè.
“輦 前 才 人 帶 弓 箭
9. Niǎn-qián cái-rén dài gōng-jiàn,
白 馬 嚼 齧 黃 金 勒
10. Bái mǎ jué-niè huáng-jīn lè;
翻 身 向 天 仰 射 雲
11. Fān-shēn xiàng tiān yǎng shè yún,
一 笑 正 墜 雙 飛 翼
12. Yí xiào zhèng zhuì shuāng fēi yì.
明 眸 皓 齒 今 何 在
13. Míng-móu hào-chǐ jīn hé zài?
血 污 遊 魂 歸 不 得
14. Xuè-wū yóu-hún guī-bù-dé.
清 渭 東 流 劍 閣 深
15. Qīng Wèi dōng liú Jiàn-gé shēn,
去 住 彼 此 無 消 息
16. Qù zhù bǐ-cǐ wú xiāo-xī.
人 生 有 情 淚 霑 臆
17. Rén-shēng yǒu qíng lèi zhān yì,
江 水 江 花 豈 終 極
18. Jiāng-shuǐ jiāng-huā qǐ zhōng-jí?
黃 昏 胡 騎 塵 滿 城
19. Huáng-hūn hú-jì chén mǎn chéng,
欲 往 城 南 望 城 北
20. Yù wǎng chéng-nán wàng chéng-běi.
Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBtPTL3EVFA
“By the Lake
The old fellow from Shao-ling weeps with stifled sobs as he walks furtively by the bends of the Serpentine on a day in spring. In the waterside palaces the thousands of doors are locked. For whom have the willows and rushes put on their fresh greenery?
I remember how formerly, when the Emperor’s rainbow banner made its way into the South Park, everything in the park seemed to bloom with a brighter colour. The First Lady of the Chao-yang Palace rode in the same carriage as her lord in attendance at his side, while before the carriage rode maids of honour equipped with bows and arrows, their white horses champing at golden bits. Leaning back, face skywards, they shot into the clouds; and the Lady laughed gaily when a bird fell to the ground transfixed by a well-aimed arrow. Where are the bright eyes and the flashing smile now? Tainted with blood-pollution, her wandering soul cannot make its way back. The clear waters of the Wei flow eastwards, and Chien-ko is far away: between the one who has gone and the one who remains no communication is possible. It is human to have feelings and to shed tears for such things; but the grasses and flowers of the lakeside go on for ever, unmoved. As evening falls, the city is full of the dust of foreign horsemen. My way is towards the South City, but my gaze turns northwards.
Re: 7. 哀江頭 Āi jiāng-tóu
- Huh so chang’an the imperial capital forever has a Serpentine Lake in its major park; London also has a river sculpted/terraformed into such a shape and called that. Is theirs translated like that after ours, is it a random coincidence, is ours called that after theirs, or was our current park design a post opium war conscious and modelled attempt to aesthetically build an imperial capital? No idea but it’s interesting.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpentine
It’s interesting bc this would have been a period of chinoiserie circa the rising popularity of tea in upper class circles:
“Chinoiserie entered European art and decoration in the mid-to-late 17th century; the work of Athanasius Kircher influenced the study of orientalism. The popularity of chinoiserie peaked around the middle of the 18th century when it was associated with the rococo style and with works by François Boucher, Thomas Chippendale, and Jean-Baptist Pillement. It was also popularized by the influx of Chinese and Indian goods brought annually to Europe aboard English, Dutch, French, and Swedish East India Companies.”
- “Yì xī ní-jīng xià Nán-yuàn
I remember formerly rainbow-banner descending-to South-park”
Du Fu used to ship Cartman/Kenny, huh
- This sounds silly, but this movement from rainbow banner as a metonymy/symbol and stand in for the emperor to 'but every creature in the park was adding to its colour' really strikes me in this fresh way re what metonymy can do in a piece, the strategy and care with which it can operate. The parallel here between the emperor's colour and finery and the colour and finery of the people/creatures of his realm doubles back onto that traditional image of the emperor as the quintessence of his land, a barometer and lodestone.
- “maids of honour equipped with bows and arrows” interesting gender point
Re: 7. 哀江頭 Āi jiāng-tóu
Re: 7. 哀江頭 Āi jiāng-tóu
The bit about sharing the same carriage is a breach of etiquette, as no one should be riding with the emperor
Baike glosses the maids of honor as women officials.
The bit about the pair of birds falling might be foreshadowing about the emperor and Yang Guifei's fate.
His way is towards South City bc that's the part of the city he lives in. Baike suggests he's so sad he's mixing up north and south.