Little Primer of Du Fu, Poems 21-25

[x_los]

This is week 5/7 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 21 through 25, 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 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 10

Comments

21. 登樓 Dēng lóu

[x_los]

登樓
Dēng lóu

花 近 高 樓 傷 客 心
1. Huā jìn gāo lóu shāng kè xīn:
萬 方 多 難 此 登 臨
2. Wàn-fāng duō nán cǐ dēng-lín!
錦 江 春 色 來 天 地
3. Jǐn-jiāng chūn-sè lái tiān-dì,
玉 壘 浮 雲 變 古 今
4. Yù-léi fú-yún biàn gǔ-jīn.
北 極 朝 廷 終 不 改
5. Běi-jí cháo-tíng zhōng bù gǎi,
西 山 寇 盜 莫 相 侵
6. Xī-shān kòu-dào mò xiāng-qīn!
可 憐 後 主 還 祠 廟
7. Kě-lián Hòu-zhǔ huán cí-miào,
日 暮 聊 為 梁 父 吟
8. Rì-mù liáo wéi Liáng-fù-yín.

Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho7QbnG4YZQ (weird mechanical voice)

On the Tower

Flowers near the high tower sadden the heart of the visitor. It is at a time when the Empire is everywhere beset by troubles that he has climbed up to see this view. The Brocade River scene, dressed in spring’s colours, brings a whole universe before his eyes, whilst the floating clouds above Marble Fort Mountain seem to unfold all time in their mutating shapes. The Court of the Northern Star remains unchanged. Let the marauders from the Western Mountains cease their raiding! Even the poor Second Ruler still has his shrine. As evening falls I shall sing a song of Liang-fu.

Re: 21. 登樓 Dēng lóu

[x_los]

“Hua” is another one I know from SVSSS

Affluent (geography), a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake

Chu-ko Liang again: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuge_Liang)

“Flowers near the high tower sadden the heart of the visitor. ” Why exactly?

A TOUGH one, without explication.

Kind of arrogant for the poetic speaker to think they can be the Chu-ko Liang!

Re: 21. 登樓 Dēng lóu

[superborb]

Hawkes could stand to be a LITTLE more poetic in his translations...

Baike says the line where the floating clouds are changing shows how fickle the political situation and people's lives have always been.