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

27. 詠懷古跡 Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (1)

[x_los]

詠懷古跡
Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (1)

群 山 萬 壑 赴 荊 門
1. Qún-shān wàn-hè fù Jīng-mén,
生 長 明 妃 尚 有 村
2. Shēng-zhǎng Míng-fēi shàng yǒu cūn.
一 去 紫 臺 連 朔 漠
3. Yí qù zǐ-tái lián shuò-mò,
獨 留 青 冢 向 黃 昏
4. Dú liú Qīng-zhǒng xiàng huáng-hūn.
畫 圖 省 識 春 風 面
5. Huà-tú shěng zhì chūn-fēng miàn,
環 珮 空 歸 月 夜 魂
6. Huán-pèi kōng guī yuè-yè hún.
千 載 琵 琶 作 胡 語
7. Qiān zǎi pí-pá zuò hú yǔ,
分 明 怨 恨 曲 中 論
8. Fēn-míng yuàn-hèn qǔ-zhōng

Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16YLQ-cg9cs

Thoughts on an Ancient Site (1)

By many a mountain and many a thousand valley I come to the Gate of Ch’u. The village where Ming-fei was born and bred is to be found there still. Once she had left behind the crimson terraces, the northern desert stretched continuously before her eyes. Now only her Green Tomb is left, solitary against the dusk. Paintings have recorded those features that the spring wind caressed. On moonlight nights the sound of tinkling girdle-gems announces the bootless return of her soul. For a thousand years the p’i-p’a has spoken its foreign tongue, seeming in its music to be discussing all her wrongs and griefs.

Re: 27. 詠懷古跡 Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (1)

[x_los]

“According to the earliest version of the story, which is probably the true one, she had a son who succeeded the king after his father’s death and, in accordance with the Hunnish custom, married her along with his father’s other wives and had sons by her. ” Oh word, wild

V like Songs of a Nomad Flute, another entry in this married out princesses trope

Lol at the INCREASING INSISTENCE ON PURITY!!

“with the Chinese balloon guitar, or p’i-p’a, which was in fact a foreign instrument imported into China during the Han era. She is frequently depicted carrying a guitar” oh this again

Moxa: so some kind of mugwort tattoo?

Debouches: emerge from a confined space into a wide, open area.

“bootless return of her soul.” Why bootless?

Re: 27. 詠懷古跡 Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (1)

[superborb]

I guess bootless is the translation for the 'in vain' bit?

Re: 27. 詠懷古跡 Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (1)

[x_los]

yeah I was more going, why is it in vain?

Re: 27. 詠懷古跡 Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (1)

[superborb]

I believe we have met her already on the poetry journey-- Wang Zhaojun, one of the four beauties, the one who makes geese drop out of the sky.

Interesting that the wiki article mentions how her portrait is blemished, but the baike article only says that she was not painted beautifully.