Little Primer of Du Fu, Poems 11-15

[x_los]

This is week 3/7 on David Hawkes' Little Primer of Du Fu. I'll replicate the poems themselves here, but as this book contains considerable exegesis I advise you to grab this copy.

 

This week we're reading poems 11 through 15, inclusive.

 

How to Read Chinese Poetry has two chapters on forms Du Fu uses extensively:

 

Ch 8, Recent Style Shi Poetry, Pentasyllabic Regulated Verse (Wuyan Lüshi) 

Ch 9, Recent Style Shi Poetry, Heptasyllabic Regulated Verse (Qiyan Lüshi) 

 

Three other chapters on other verse forms that Du Fu sometimes employs, or which people quoting Du Fu employ, also mention him:

 

Ch 10,  Recent Style Shi Poetry, Quatrains (Jueju): some mention of Du Fu’s “Three Quatrains, No. 3”

Ch 14, Ci Poetry,  Long Song Lyrics on Objects (Yongwu Ci): some mention of Du Fu's “Beautiful Lady” (Jiaren)

Ch 18, A Synthesis:  Rhythm, Syntax, and Vision of Chinese Poetry: some mention of Du Fu’s poem “The Jiang and Han Rivers” 

 

Additional Reading for this Week: Chapter 8

Comments

13. 夢李白 Mèng Lǐ Bái (1)

[x_los]

夢李白
Mèng Lǐ Bái (1)

死 別 已 吞 聲
1. Sǐ-bié yǐ tūn-shēng,
生 別 常 惻 惻
2. Shēng-bié cháng cè-cè.
江 南 瘴 癘 地
3. Jiāng-nán zhàng-lì dì,
逐 客 無 消 息
4. Zhú-kè wú xiāo-xī.
故 人 入 我 夢
5. Gù-rén rù wǒ mèng,
明 我 長 相 憶
6. Míng wǒ cháng xiāng-yì.
君 今 在 羅 網
7. Jūn jīn zài luó-wǎng,
何 以 有 羽 翼
8. Hé-yǐ yǒu yǔ-yì?
恐 非 平 生 魂
9. Kǒng fēi píng-shēng hún,
路 遠 不 可 測
10. Lù yuǎn bū kě cè.
魂 來 楓 林 青
11. Hún lái fēng-lín qīng,
魂 返 關 塞 黑
12. Hún fǎn guān-sài hēi.
落 月 滿 屋 梁
13. Luò yuè mǎn wū-liáng,
猶 疑 照 顏 色
14. Yóu yí zhào yán-sè!
水 深 波 浪 闊
15. Shuǐ shēn bō-làng kuò,
無 使 蛟 龍 得
16. Wú shǐ jiāo-lóng dé!

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

Dreaming of Li Po (1)

After the separation of death one can eventually swallow back one’s grief, but the separation of the living is an endless, unappeasable anxiety. From pestilent Chiang-nan no news arrives of the poor exile. That my old friend should come into my dream shows how constantly he is in my thoughts. I fear that this is not the soul of the living man: the journey is so immeasurably far. When your soul left, the maple woods were green: on its return the passes were black with night. Lying now enmeshed in the net of the law, how did you find wings with which to fly here? The light of the sinking moon illumines every beam and rafter of my chamber, and I half expect it to light up your face. The water is deep, the waves are wide: don’t let the water-dragons get you!

Re: 13. 夢李白 Mèng Lǐ Bái (1)

[x_los]

- The Read Aloud version misses lines 6, 7 and 8. What gives? Only to reinsert 7 and 8 back before 13! Madness!

“Tu Fu was completely captivated by the older poet’s magnetic personality and treasured the memory of their brief association for the rest of his life, addressing a number of poems to him at different times and from different places." Gayyyy

“when news of an amnesty in which he was included reached him in the early summer of 759, he was little more than half-way to his place of exile.” This is the most involved version of this story I have read but it is: Still Funny

“Scholars accustomed to handling dated sources easily forget that information they can obtain in three-quarters of a minute by taking a book off a shelf” pre-internet. Cute.

What’s up with the dragons?

Re: 13. 夢李白 Mèng Lǐ Bái (1)

[superborb]

Baike says that the dragon line is to say that the situation is dangerous, that he should be afraid of misfortunes, and to be careful.

Re: 13. 夢李白 Mèng Lǐ Bái (1)

[x_los]

Yeah, just seems quite a big like, folkloric image to throw in there at the end. Maybe less jarring if you're more familiar with that as a danger in stories.

Re: 13. 夢李白 Mèng Lǐ Bái (1)

[superborb]

Mmm but isn't it just following the line of allusion?