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

Re: 12. 佳人 Jiā-rén

[superborb]

Baike suggests this poem is dealing with how Du Fu sees his situation reflected in her.

Baike mentions in their analysis that the flickering light is a metaphor for time passing rapidly and the world changing.

Baike says multiple possible interpretations of the spring water line. In addition to the interpretation that Hawkes takes, there's also the interpretation that she is the clear water and the husband the muddy, and by staying on the mountain, she's refusing to become muddy. Or it's about chastity, or the two wives.

Baike's gloss is the tall bamboo is a metaphor for the noble principles of the lady.

Re: 12. 佳人 Jiā-rén

[x_los]

Ah, that makes sense re the final line. I do wonder if it's pulling on like, friends of winter bamboo imagery et al that doesn't occur to me. And of course that bamboo kicker works better if you take Baike's line on the immediately preceding spring water question as relating to her withdrawal as moral choice, as abstention from sin.