Little Primer of Du Fu, Poems 26 - 30

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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

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26. 寄韓諫議注 Jì Hán Jiàn-yì Zhù

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寄韓諫議注
Jì Hán Jiàn-yì Zhù

今 我 不 樂 思 岳 陽
1. Jīn wǒ bū lè sì Yuè-yáng,
身 欲 奮 飛 病 在 牀
2. Shēn yù fèn-fēi bìng zài chuáng.
美 人 娟 娟 隔 秋 水
3. Měi-rén juān-juān gé qiū-shuǐ,
濯 足 洞 庭 望 八 荒
4. Zhuó zú Dòng-tíng wàng bā-huāng.
鴻 飛 冥 冥 日 月 白
5. Hóng fēi míng-míng rì yuè-bái,
青 楓 葉 赤 天 雨 霜
6. Qīng fēng yè chì tiān yǔ shuāng.
玉 京 群 帝 集 北 斗
7. Yù-jīng qún-dì jí běi-dǒu,
或 騎 麒 麟 翳 鳳 凰
8. Huò qí qí-lín yì fèng-huáng.
芙 蓉 旌 旗 煙 霧 落
9. Fú-róng jīng-qí yān-wù luò,
影 動 倒 景 搖 瀟 湘
10. Yǐng dòng dào-jǐng yáo Xiāo Xiāng.
星 宮 之 君 醉 瓊 漿
11. Xīng-gōng zhī jūn zuì qióng-jiāng,
羽 人 稀 少 不 在 旁
12. Yǔ-rén xī-shǎo bú zài páng.
似 聞 昨 者 赤 松 子
13. Sì wén zuó-zhě Chì-sōng-zǐ,
恐 是 漢 代 韓 張 良
14. Kǒng shì Hàn-dài Hán Zhāng Liáng.
昔 隨 劉 氏 定 長 安
15. Xī suí Liú-shì dìng Cháng-ān,
帷 幄 未 改 神 慘 傷
16. Wéi-wò wèi gǎi shén cǎn-shāng.
國 家 成 敗 吾 豈 敢
17. Guó-jiā chéng-bài wú qǐ gǎn!
色 難 腥 腐 餐 楓 香
18. Sè-nán xīng-fǔ cān fēng-xiāng.
周 南 留 滯 古 所 惜
19. Zhōu-nán liú-zhì gǔ suǒ xī,
南 極 老 人 應 壽 昌
20. Nán-jí lǎo-rén yīng shòu-chāng.
美 人 胡 為 隔 秋 水
21. Měi-rén hú-wèi gé qiū-shuǐ?
焉 得 置 之 貢 玉 堂
22. Yān dé zhì zhī gòng yù-táng?

Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUkU_gazr2c

For the Admonisher, Han Chu

Today I am downcast and my thoughts turn to Yo-yang. My body wants to rouse up and fly there, but illness holds me to my bed. There stands the Beloved One of the radiant looks, beyond the waters of autumn, washing his feet in Tung-t’ing’s shallows and gazing towards the world’s eight ends. 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.

In the City of Jade the rulers of the sky are assembling about the Pole Star, some riding on unicorns and some on phoenixes, their lotus banners drooping in the mists. The movement of their fleeting forms casts an inverted image in the waters and makes a commotion on the still surface of the Hsiao and Hsiang. The lords of the starry palace are drunk with immortal wine. Few of the Winged Ones are missing from that company.

Yet I seem to have heard a while past of one Master of the Red Pine, whom I guess to be none other than Chang Liang of Han of our own dynasty. Once he followed Liu Pang in the settlement of Ch’ang-an. Now his great plan remains unchanged, but the spirit that informed it has been crushed. He did not presume to prognosticate concerning the fortunes of our state; he left, revolted by the stink of corruption, to sweeten his mouth with a diet of liquidambar.

Yet the delay in Chou-nan has been deplored throughout the ages; and the Old Man of the Southern Sky promises long and glorious years. So why should the Beloved One tarry beyond the waters of autumn? How can we have him placed, a meet and acceptable offering, in the Hall of Jade?

27. 詠懷古跡 Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (1)

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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.

28. 詠懷古跡 Yǒng huái gǔ-jì (2)

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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.

29. 閣夜 Gé yè

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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!

30. 八陣圖 Bā zhèn tú

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八陣圖
Bā zhèn tú

功 蓋 三 分 國
1. Gōng gài sān-fēn guó,
名 成 八 陣 圖
2. Míng chéng bā zhèn tú.
江 流 石 不 轉
3. Jiāng-liú shí bù zhuǎn,
遺 恨 失 吞 吳
4. Yí hèn shī tūn Wú!

Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZzHnHGQ0kM

The Eight Formations

Of the achievements surpassing those of all others in that divided world of the Three Kingdoms, that which won him greatest renown was the construction of the Eight Formations. The great stones stand unmoved by the river’s currents, a lasting memorial to his regret at having failed to swallow Wu.

Ch 18, A Synthesis: Rhythm, Syntax, and Vision of Chinese Poetry

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“Chinese is a nonin ec- tional language, and its words are not cast into a xed spatiotemporal-logical rela- tionship by tense, voice, and other in ectional tags” not really use how this co-exists with this “Since the publication of Ma Jianzhong’s (1845– 1900) Ma shi wen tong (Mr. Ma’s Grammar) in 1898, Chinese linguists have worked assiduously to construct a syntax-based Chinese grammar”

“an agent (subject) and the agent’s state or action (predicate) that may or may not involve a recipient (object). A complete subject + predicate construction en- acts or implies a temporal-causal sequence from an agent to its action and to the action’s recipient. In English and other Western languages, this construction is the primary framework for both poetic and common speech. But in Chinese, this construction is far less important or pervasive than in English” ugh, tell me about it

“It should be noted that a typical Chinese subject + predicate construction is far less restrictive than its English counterpart. Neither subject nor predicate is xed in time and space, as they are in Western languages by in ectional tags for tense, case, number, gender, and other aspects. Thus the reader has to contextualize, with or without the aid of grammatical function words.” Grim

“It was singled out by two prominent American critics, Ernest Fenollosa (1853–1908) and Ezra Pound (1885–1972), to support their assertions about the superiority of Chinese as a medium for poetry.” Again, how much to just not talk about Pound all the time?

“reduplicatives in the Book of Poetry primarily express a perceiver’s emotional response to external phenomena by translating it into alliterative and rhyming sounds untainted by conceptualization. This emotive use of reduplica- tives has had a lasting impact on Chinese poetry.” So how are they writing/reading ‘nonsense words’ in Chinese? Is that what’s up here?

“(“You, lovely” [yao miao, an assonant reduplicative])” where are they getting that from?

“however, these disyllabic segments are indispensable be- cause they help to create the quick and powerful rhythm of a shaman chant and dance and amplify emotional expression.” Interesting, it’d be good to get a better sense of this

verse eye again

“In traditional Chinese physiognomy, “sun-horn” denotes the hornlike protrusion on the forehead of someone who is or is destined to be an emperor.” Again, Emperor Horns

This chapter’s p clear and helpful honestly

“the “round toad,” a Chinese mythical metaphor for the moon,” ??

“reduplica- tives were continually reinvented over the millennia as a prized means of emo- tional expression.”