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

28. 詠懷古跡 Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (2)

[x_los]

詠懷古跡
Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (2)

諸 葛 大 名 垂 宇 宙
1. Zhū-gé dà-míng chuí yǔ-zhòu,
宗 臣 遺 象 肅 清 高
2. Zōng-chén yí-xiàng sù qīng-gāo.
三 分 割 據 紆 籌 策
3. Sān-fēn gē-jù yū chóu-cè,
萬 古 雲 霄 一 羽 毛
4. Wàn-gǔ yún-xiāo yī yǔ-máo.
伯 仲 之 間 見 伊 呂
5. Bó-zhòng zhī jiān jiàn Yī Lǚ,
指 揮 若 定 失 蕭 曹
6. Zhǐ-huī ruò dìng shī Xiāo Cáo.
運 移 漢 祚 終 難 復
7. Yùn yí Hàn zuò zhōng nán fù,
志 決 身 殲 軍 務 勞
8. Zhì jué shēn jiān jūn-wù láo.

Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IT5bp1TOG0

Thoughts on an Ancient Site (2)

Chu-ko Liang’s great fame resounds through the ages. The likeness of this revered statesman still impresses with its sublime expression. The tripartite division of empire hampered his great designs; yet he soars through all the ages, a single feather floating high among the clouds. I Yin and Lü Shang could be reckoned among his peers; whilst Hsiao Ho and Ts’ao Shen would have been as nothing beside him had he only been able to establish his dominion. But the cycle had passed on and the fortunes of the House of Han were not to be restored; and so, hopes blighted, he perished, and his strategy was all in vain.

Re: 28. 詠懷古跡 Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (2)

[x_los]

“Chu-ko Liang” meatloaf? Again??

So Chu-ko Liang has the tomb from earlier and also this separate, now twice mentioned other shrine?

empyrean /ˌɛmpʌɪˈriːən,ˌɛmpɪˈriːən,ɛmˈpɪrɪən/ Learn to pronounce adjective relating to heaven or the sky. "the empyrean domain where human will and God's will became as one"

I: we’re translating a whole first name to one letter now?

“have left Hsiao Ho and Ts’ao Shen standing” weird way of putting it