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

29. 閣夜 Gé yè

[x_los]

閣夜
Gé yè

歲 暮 陰 陽 催 短 景
1. Suì-mù yīn-yáng cuī duǎn jǐng,
天 涯 霜 雪 霽 寒 霄
2. Tiān-yá shuāng-xuě jì hán xiāo.
五 更 鼓 角 聲 悲 壯
3. Wǔ-gēng gǔ-jiǎo shēng bēi-zhuàng,
三 峽 星 河 影 動 搖
4. Sān-xiá xīng-hé yǐng dòng-yáo.
野 哭 千 家 聞 戰 伐
5. Yě kū qiān jiā wén zhàn-fá,
夷 歌 幾 處 起 漁 樵
6. Yí gē jǐ chù qǐ yú qiáo.
卧 龍 躍 馬 終 黃 土
7. Wò-lóng Yuè-mǎ zhōng huáng-tǔ,
人 事 音 書 漫 寂 寥
8. Rén-shì yīn-shū màn jì-liáo.

Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUVovup7bpA

Night at West House

In the evening of the year nature’s forces swiftly hustle out the brief daylight. Night at the world’s end is clear and cold after the frost and snow. The drums and bugles of the fifth watch sound, stirring and sad. Over the Three Gorges the luminous shape of the starry river trembles. In the countryside weeping rises from a thousand homes who have learned of the fighting, whilst here and there outlandish songs can be heard, sung by some fisherman or woodcutter about his work. Sleeping Dragon and Horse Leaper ended in the yellow dust. Idle to feel melancholy at the vexations of life and the lack of news from friends and kinsmen!

Re: 29. 閣夜 Gé yè

[x_los]

“a public building in K’uei-chou, part of which was placed at Tu Fu’s disposal in the autumn of 766” for what?

“local aborigines” they aren’t considered culturally homogenous?

Horse Leaper: weird-ass choice

“Sleeping Dragon and Horse Leaper ended in the yellow dust. Idle to feel melancholy at the vexations of life and the lack of news from friends and kinsmen!” so what’s this ending? Statesmen and emperors associated with this area long ago have passed away, so what’s the point of fretting over news of danger to your relations? What’s the relationship between these lines?

Re: 29. 閣夜 Gé yè

[superborb]

It seems like it's just housing for him?

Sichuan in particular still has quite a large ethnic minority population. Baike is incidentally sure that the songs are the songs of the local ethnic minority, not foreign songs.

Baike makes an interesting comment that the ending is how his loneliness doesn't mean much in the face of the more important chaos that is approaching.