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

Re: 25. 古柏行 Gǔ bǎi xíng

[x_los]

The recording moves lines 5 and 6 later in the poem, after line 9. Is this disputed? Second time something like this has happened.

“Frosty bark’ is of course metaphorical” how so? (Rimy is covered in frost) Maybe he’s trying to talk about how the ridged bark of a cyprus looks

“the bitter core of the cypress wood” ?

“Tu Fu’s very first childish attempt at verse was a little poem about a phoenix” how do we know, did someone ask his mom??

I like the end

Re: 25. 古柏行 Gǔ bǎi xíng

[superborb]

My grandpa sent me an mp3 of this with the original ordering if you want...

From Baike:

Yes, the swapping of lines 5+6 with 7+8 was suggested by Song era Liu Xuxi. Qiu Zhao'ao follows this by inverting these four lines too. Huang Shen dismissed this as a child's opinion.

Hah, your thinking aligns with Baike. The gloss for the frosty bark is 'pale ash gray colored' and the rainy bit is 'glossy/smooth'.

Baike says that the core of the cypress is bitter tasting. But also it's to contrast with the fragrant leaves, to show the feeling of life experience.

Re: 25. 古柏行 Gǔ bǎi xíng

[x_los]

"uang Shen dismissed this as a child's opinion." looool