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

23. 丹青引 贈曹將軍霸 Dān-qīng yǐn Zèng Cáo jiāng-jūn Bà

[x_los]

丹青引 贈曹將軍霸
Dān-qīng yǐn Zèng Cáo jiāng-jūn Bà

將 軍 魏 武 之 子 孫
1. Jiāng-jūn Wèi-wǔ zhī zǐ-sūn,
於 今 為 庶 為 清 門
2. Yú-jīn wéi shù wéi qīng-mén.
英 雄 割 據 雖 已 矣
3. Yīng-xióng gē-jù suī yǐ-yǐ,
文 采 風 流 今 尚 存
4. Wén-cǎi fēng-liú jīn shàng cún:
學 書 初 學 衛 夫 人
5. Xué shū chū xué Wèi-fū-rén,
但 恨 無 過 王 右 軍
6. Dàn hèn wú guò Wáng-yòu-jūn.
丹 青 不 知 老 將 至
7. Dān-qīng bù zhī lǎo jiāng zhì,
富 貴 於 我 如 浮 雲
8. Fù-guì yú wǒ rú fú-yún!
開 元 之 中 常 引 見
9. Kāi-yuán zhī zhōng cháng yǐn-jiàn,
承 恩 數 上 南 熏 殿
10. Chéng-ēn shuò shàng Nán-xūn-diàn.
凌 煙 功 臣 少 顏 色
11. Líng-yān gōng-chén shǎo yán-sè,
將 軍 下 筆 開 生 面
12. Jiāng-jūn xià-bǐ kāi shēng-miàn.
良 相 頭 上 進 賢 冠
13. Liáng xiàng tóu-shàng jìn-xián-guān,
猛 將 腰 間 大 羽 箭
14. Měng jiàng yāo-jiān dà-yǔ-jiàn.
褒 公 鄂 公 毛 髮 動
15. Bǎo-gōng È-gōng máo-fà dòng,
英 姿 颯 爽 來 酣 戰
16. Yīng zī sà-shuǎng lái hān zhàn.
先 帝 御 馬 玉 花 驄
17. Xiān-dì yù-mǎ Yù-huā-cōng,
畫 工 如 山 貌 不 同
18. Huà-gōng rú shān mào bù tóng.
是 日 牽 來 赤 墀 下
19. Shì-rì qiān-lái chì-chí-xià,
逈 立 閶 闔 生 長 風
20. Jiǒng lì chāng-hé shēng cháng fēng.
詔 謂 將 軍 拂 絹 素
21. Zhào wèi jiāng-jūn fú juān-sù,
意 匠 慘 淡 經 營 中
22. Yì-jiàng cǎn-dàn jīng-yíng-zhōng.
斯 須 九 重 真 龍 出
23. Sī-xū jiǔ-chóng zhēn lóng chū,
一 洗 萬 古 凡 馬 空
24. Yì-xǐ wàn-gǔ fán mǎ kōng!
玉 花 却 在 御 榻 上
25. Yù-huā què zài yù-tà-shàng,
榻 上 庭 前 屹 相 向
26. Tà-shàng tíng-qián yì xiāng-xiàng.
至 尊 含 笑 催 賜 金
27. Zhì-zūn hán-xiào cuī cì-jīn,
圉 人 太 僕 皆 惆 悵
28. Yǔ-rén tài-pú jiē chóu-chàng.
弟 子 韓 幹 早 入 室
29. Dì-zǐ Hán Gān zǎo rù-shì,
亦 能 畫 馬 窮 殊 相
30. Yì néng huà mǎ qióng shū xiàng.
幹 惟 畫 肉 不 畫 骨
31. Gān wéi huà ròu bú huà gǔ,
忍 使 驊 騮 氣 凋 喪
32. Rěn shǐ Huá-liú qì diāo-sàng!
將 軍 善 畫 蓋 有 神
33. Jiāng-jūn shàn huà gài yǒu shén,
必 逢 佳 士 亦 寫 真
34. Bì féng jiā-shì yì xiě-zhēn.
即 今 漂 泊 干 戈 際
35. Jí-jīn piāo-bó gān-gē jì,
屢 貌 尋 常 行 路 人
36. Lǚ mào xún-cháng xíng-lù rén.
窮 塗 反 遭 俗 眼 白
37. Qióng-tú fǎn zāo sú yǎn bái,
世 上 未 有 如 公 貧
38. Shì-shàng wèi yǒu rú gōng pín.
但 看 古 來 盛 名 下
39. Dàn kàn gǔ-lái shèng-míng-xià,
終 日 坎 纏 其 身
40. Zhōng-rì kǎn-lǎn chán qí shēn.

Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcfHc-N6edk

A Song of Painting. To General Ts’ao Pa

You, General, are a descendant of Emperor Wu of Wei, but now, a commoner, live in humble circumstances. Though the heroic empire-building of your ancestor is long past, his brilliant culture and elegant style live on in you. In calligraphy you first studied under the Lady Wei, your only regret being that you could not excel Wang Hsi-chih. Painting, you forget the advance of old age: to you wealth and rank are as insubstantial as floating clouds.

During the K’ai-yüan period (713–42) you were often summoned to court. Frequently you were favoured with invitations to the Hall of Southern Fragrance. When the colours in the portraits of distinguished statesmen and soldiers in the Rising Above the Mists Gallery had become faded, you, with your brush, gave them a new, fresh look. On the heads of good ministers you painted ‘Promotion of the Worthy’ hats; at the belts of fierce generals you painted ‘Big Feather’ arrows. The Duke of Pao and the Duke of O, their beards and hair bristling, appeared, from their heroic and forbidding expressions, to be drunk with many battles.

Our late Emperor’s horse Jade Flower was painted by artists as numerous as the hills, but the paintings were not good likenesses. One day he was led out below the Red Terrace. As he stood far off there in the gates, a great wind seemed to have entered the palace. An order was given commanding you to prepare your silk for a painting. With deep intensity your artist’s mind pondered and planned a while, and then, quite suddenly, the veritable dragon emerged from the pregnant sky, annihilating in a trice a myriad ordinary horses painted from old times up to now.

When the portrait was taken up and hung behind the throne, the Jade Flower above the throne and the one in the forecourt faced each other proudly. His Imperial Majesty with a smile hurried those who were to fetch the reward. And how out of countenance all the grooms and stable-boys looked! Your disciple Han Kan long ago graduated to the ‘inner sanctum’; but he paints only the outward flesh: he does not know how to suggest the bone within, and is quite capable of allowing a Hua-liu to lose all its life and spirit.

Your excellence as a painter is divinely inspired. You used also to paint portraits, though only if you met an unusual person. Today, drifting about in an age of violence, you often make likenesses of quite ordinary people, and in your present dire straits have to endure sour looks from vulgar eyes. Surely there can be no one in the world quite as poor as you! However, if one but examines those who have been famous from ancient times to the present, one finds that they were constantly enmeshed in hardships and difficulties.

Re: 23. 丹青引 贈曹將軍霸 Dān-qīng yǐn Zèng Cáo jiāng-jūn Bà

[x_los]

“Tu Fu is not much given to flattery, though living in an age when poetic flattery was a commonplace; yet this poem is loaded with the most obsequious flatteries. If it is constantly borne in mind that they are addressed to an old man who had once been famous but is now living in poverty and obscurity, I think they will be found warm-hearted and touching, and far from repellent.” Awh

oblique tone?

Lady Wei—interesting, a woman

“When the colours in the portraits of distinguished statesmen and soldiers in the Rising Above the Mists Gallery had become faded, you, with your brush, gave them a new, fresh look. “ Oh so they value art restoration as a painting skill

“Our late Emperor’s horse Jade Flower was painted by artists as numerous as the hills, but the paintings were not good likenesses” the inherent comedy of important horse painting

“Surely there can be no one in the world quite as poor as you!” yeah du fu this is what I wanna hear in a poem in my honour, hit me with that good reminder I am poor

“Tu Fu’s use of the heptasyllabic Ballad Style for this sort of descriptive study […] was an entirely novel departure, quite different, it should be noted, from the ‘dramatic encounter’ found in the Ballad of the Army Carts (No. 2), the Ballad of Lovely Women (No. 3), and The Unfortunate Prince (No. 5), which are much closer in style to the ballad of tradition. Tu Fu’s motive for adopting so improbable a medium for a poem about a painter can only be guessed at” maybe compare with like, Dar Williams’ Rothko Song, Cohen’s Suzanne

“Jūn” oh hey is this the jun as in—xianxia jun titles?

“Qīng-mén ‘cold-door’: a poor man” wonder quite what the etymology is on that, it’s nearly guessable but not fully

“Fēng-liú, which can be either an adjective or a noun, is always a difficult word to translate: ‘stylish’, ‘romantic’, ‘glamour’, ‘panache’, ‘refinement’ are a few of its meanings.” Nice

Ooooh NOT the real Lady Wei

“Hall of Southern Fragrance” strikes me as an odd name, but there’s a similar one in CQL

“duke of O” surely there’s not a place just called: O

“Yù-mǎ: yù is one of the honorifics used in court language when referring to objects belonging to the Emperor. Thus his reading is yù-lǎn ‘Imperial surveying’, his writing yù-bǐ ‘Imperial brushwork’, and his seal yù-bǎo ‘the Imperial treasure’.” Okay but you could use this for some dodgy fic, right, where is the Ranwan—

“nine-fold true dragon emerges” here and in the final translation, this is a bit opaque to me

Gōng ‘duke’: not how I’ve heard it used, but continue

Re: 23. 丹青引 贈曹將軍霸 Dān-qīng yǐn Zèng Cáo jiāng-jūn Bà

[superborb]

If you recall, middle Chinese had different tones than modern -- four, but a different four than modern Mandarin -- and level vs oblique (the other three) is the important distinction for poetry rhyme patterns.

This is a different jun. Someday you'll start learning characters and it will be all downhill from there.

"Door" is a metonym for a family/household. As qing no longer has 'cold' as a top level meaning, the modern Chinese equivalent (per Baike) is 寒门, "cold-door".

Regret to inform that the pinyin version is of O is E. :)

Per baike's gloss, the nine heavens is referring to the palace, and the ancients thought horses over 8 chi became dragons. Baike's vernacular says "for a moment, the dragon-horse of the heavens appeared on the silk"

Re: 23. 丹青引 贈曹將軍霸 Dān-qīng yǐn Zèng Cáo jiāng-jūn Bà

[x_los]

"Someday you'll start learning characters and it will be all downhill from there." never

"Regret to inform that the pinyin version is of O is E." ...........