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

Re: 7. 哀江頭 Āi jiāng-tóu

[superborb]

Baike tidbits:

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.