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

10. 贈衛八處士 Zèng Wèi Bā chǔ-shì”

[x_los]

贈衛八處士
Zèng Wèi Bā chǔ-shì

人 生 不 相 見
1. Rén-shēng bù xiāng-jiàn,
動 如 參 與 商
2. Dòng rú shēn yǔ shāng;
今 夕 復 何 夕
3. Jīn-xī fù hé xī,
共 此 燈 燭 光
4. Gòng cǐ dēng-zhú guāng?
少 壯 能 幾 時
5. Shào-zhuàng néng jǐ-shí?
鬢 髮 各 已 蒼
6. Bìn-fà gè yǐ cāng.
訪 舊 半 為 鬼
7. Fǎng jiù bàn wéi guǐ,
驚 呼 熱 中 腸
8. Jīng-hū rè zhōng-cháng.
焉 知 二 十 載
9. Yān zhī èr-shí zǎi,
重 上 君 子 堂”
10. Chóng shàng jūn-zǐ táng!
昔 別 君 未 婚
11. Xī bié jūn wèi hūn,
兒 女 忽 成 行
12. Ér-nǚ hū chéng háng!
怡 然 敬 父 執
13. Yí-rán jìng fù-zhí,
問 我 來 何 方
14. Wèn wǒ lái hé-fāng.
問 答 乃 未 已
15. Wèn-dá nǎi wèi yǐ,
驅 兒 羅 酒 漿
16. Qū ér luó jiǔ-jiāng.
夜 雨 剪 春 韭
17. Yè yǔ jiǎn chūn jiǔ,
新 炊 間 黃 粱
18. Xīn chuī jiàn huáng-liáng.
主 稱 會 面 難
19. Zhǔ chēng huì-miàn nán,
一 舉 累 十 觴
20. Yì-jǔ lěi shí shāng;
十 觴 亦 不 醉
21. Shí shāng yì bú zuì,
感 子 故 意 長
22. Gǎn zǐ gù-yì cháng.
明 日 隔 山 岳
23. Míng-rì gé shān-yuè,
世 事 兩 茫 茫
24. Shì-shì liǎng máng-máng.

Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os6xUsE34Mo

To the Recluse, Wei Pa

Often in this life of ours we resemble, in our failure to meet, the Shen and Shang constellations, one of which rises as the other one sets. What lucky chance is it, then, that brings us together this evening under the light of this same lamp? Youth and vigour last but a little time.—Each of us now has greying temples. Half of the friends we ask each other about are dead, and our shocked cries sear the heart. Who could have guessed that it would be twenty years before I sat once more beneath your roof? Last time we parted you were still unmarried, but now here suddenly is a row of boys and girls who smilingly pay their respects to their father’s old friend. They ask me where I have come from; but before I have finished dealing with their questions, the children are hurried off to fetch us wine. Spring chives are cut in the rainy dark, and there is freshly steamed rice mixed with yellow millet. ‘Come, we don’t meet often!’ you hospitably urge, pouring out ten cupfuls in rapid succession. That I am still not drunk after ten cups of wine is due to the strength of the emotion which your unchanging friendship inspires. Tomorrow the Peak will lie between us, and each will be lost to the other, swallowed up in the world’s affairs.

Re: 10. 贈衛八處士 Zèng Wèi Bā chǔ-shì”

[x_los]

“Basically a chǔ-shì is an educated man who opts out of the usual curriculum of examination and office, preferring to lead a life of quiet retirement in the countryside”: useful to know

I TOTALLY RECOGNISED OH WHAT AN EVENING THIS EVENING IS!! take that shi jing

Re: 10. 贈衛八處士 Zèng Wèi Bā chǔ-shì”

[superborb]

Hawkes reminds me that I must look up if anyone's done that inter-cultural constellation mapping, and if Orion's belt and the big dipper really do remain grouped in most.

Also, I realized that the video player at the top of a lot of these articles is the recitation of the poem?? I wasn't paying attention until I clicked it accidentally...

Baike notes:
"and our shocked cries sear the heart": can interpret as the warm feelings of seeing old friends or the upset at learning about the dead ones.

The chives in the rainy dark is a reference to a Han dynasty story about a person whose friend unexpectedly visited and so he cut some chives in the rain.

Also, Baike claims this is different from most of Du Fu's poetry, and more similar to the simpler Han and Wei poetry. It is apparently common to describe his poetry as 沉郁顿挫, but that is... not very helpful... in figuring out what it means.