Little Primer of Du Fu, Poems 26 - 30

[x_los]

This is week 6/7 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 26 through 30, 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 18

Comments

Re: 26. 寄韓諫議注 Jì Hán Jiàn-yì Zhù

[x_los]

Without Hawkes, this is a truly dense one.

“Jì: ‘send to’, ‘address’. Poems entitled ‘Zèng …’ (e.g. No. 23) were usually presented personally, whilst those entitled ‘Jì …’ were usually sent by post.” neat

“The imagery of this poem is strongly reminiscent of the ‘spirit journeys’ which are so familiar a feature of the third century B.C. poetry of Ch’u.” Is this that Chu Ci thing? Is he going hard on DAOISM bc he’s addressing a noted Daoist?

the Beloved One of the radiant looks: this is a Lot, for the elderly? official he is addressing

gazing towards the world’s eight ends: so why is he gazing towards the ends of the earth/all points of the compass? Just—away from the capital?

“A wild swan flies in the dark depths of heaven; the sun is moon-white; frost descends on the reddening leaves of the green maples.” Is this just—autumn is coming on?

north-dipper/Pole Star: oh, hey cwn

Then some shenmo shit happens

for the Immortal Translation Debate, Hawkes is rendering Du Fu's 'winged immortals', “Yǔ-rén xī-shǎo bú zài páng” as Winged Ones (trans more literally as Feathered-men)

“羽 人 稀 少 不 在 旁”

“Taoists aspired to attain bodily immortality by confining their diet to herbs, drugs, dew, and vapours.” I guess this is where we get all the inedia shit

Ssu-ma Ch’ien: what is with this ss?

“When Emperor Wu inaugurated the much-debated sacrifices on T’ai-shan and other magical rites and ceremonies designed to confirm the power of his dynasty over the spirit world, Ssu-ma T’an, who was deeply interested in these matters, was left behind in Chou-nan. His chagrin at not being invited to accompany the court brought on a sickness from which he never recovered.” huge kidney story energy

“Gòng: literally ‘tribute’, here a verb, ‘offer as tribute” gong is a wily one, like 8 fucking things

“Gòng: literally ‘tribute’, here a verb, ‘offer as tribute’. In former times successful examination candidates and other meritorious or distinguished persons sent up to the capital by the provincial governments for employment at court were considered as part of the ‘tribute’ of the area from which they came." I am begging the Tang dynasty to stop giving me dodgy fic material. please. PLEASE.