Little Primer of Du Fu, Poems 6-10

[x_los]

This 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.)

Comments

9. 至德二載甫自京金光門出，間道歸 Zhì-dé èr-zǎi Fǔ zì Jīng Jīn-guāng-mén ch

[x_los]

至德二載甫自京金光門出，間道歸
Zhì-dé èr-zǎi Fǔ zì Jīng Jīn-guāng-mén chū, jiàn-dào guī
鳳翔。乾元初從左拾遺移華州掾。
Fèng-xiáng. Qián-yuán chū cóng zuǒ-shí-yí yí Huá-zhōu yuán.
與親故別，因出此門。有悲往事。
Yǔ qīn-gù bié, yīn chū cǐ mén. Yǒu bēi wǎng-shì.

此 道 昔 歸 順
1. Cǐ dào xī guī-shùn,
西 郊 胡 正 繁
2. Xī-jiāo hú zhèng fán.
至 今 猶 破 膽
3. Zhì-jīn yóu pò dǎn,
應 有 未 招 魂
4. Yīng yǒu wèi zhāo hún.
近 侍 歸 京 邑
5. Jìn-shì guī jīng-yì,
移 官 豈 至 尊
6. Yí guān qǐ zhì-zūn?
無 才 日 衰 老”
7. Wú-cái rì shuāi-lǎo,
駐 馬 望 千 門
8. Zhù-mǎ wàng qiān-mén.

Read Aloud: https://www.bilibili.com/s/video/BV1364y1d76F (Cantonese) (Can't find Mandarin.)

In the second year of Chih-te (757), I left the capital by the Gate of Golden Light and made my way secretly to the court at Feng-hsiang. At the beginning of Ch’ien-yüan (758), I was transferred from the post of Remembrancer in the Imperial Chancellery to that of a subordinate official in the prefectural government of Hua-chou. In order to take leave of friends and relations, I left the city by this same gate, a circumstance which brought back sad memories of past events.

When last year I made my way to grace by this same road, the western outskirts of the city were full of barbarian soldiers. To this day my nerves remain shattered, and I think some of my souls must still be in need of recall. I returned to the capital in the entourage of the Emperor. I am sure my present removal was not the doing of his Sacred Majesty. Lacking in ability, growing increasingly old and useless, I rein in my horse and gaze sadly towards the Imperial palace.

Re: 9. 至德二載甫自京金光門出，間道歸 Zhì-dé èr-zǎi Fǔ zì Jīng Jīn-guāng-mé

[x_los]

- https://www.bilibili.com/s/video/BV1364y1d76F he speaks so differently than the little kids' videos! much faster obviously, but also some of the sounds are rather unexpected (I don't think I accidentally got canto'd again tho bc I don't FEEL like I'm going mad) (edit: it was canto x_x)
Gotta avoid: 粤语
- I don’t feel I really get this year name stuff. Like “chosen arbitrarily”, really? This, from the most symbolically-overdetermined culture in the business? If you say so.
- “it is customary to leave year-names untranslated because in a great many cases it is impossible to discover what their inventors meant by them.”: Okay so it’s probably something but we don’t know
- “Instrument of Abdication” ?
- “Dǎn: literally ‘gall-bladder’—the seat of courage. To have a broken gall-bladder means to have lost one’s nerve.” Huh. Wait is that dan as in dantian?
- “Zhāo hún: illness or shock may cause a person’s soul to leave his body, in which case the proper rituals must be performed for recalling it. Actually we ought to say ‘souls’ rather than ‘soul’, though; because according to popular theory a person had not one but ten souls: three spiritual souls (hún) and seven animal souls (pò).” Huuuuh, this again (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hun_and_po)
- So what IS Du Fu’s poetic reputation at this point? Like does everyone know he’s a big deal?

Re: 9. 至德二載甫自京金光門出，間道歸 Zhì-dé èr-zǎi Fǔ zì Jīng Jīn-guāng-mé

[superborb]

Different dan