Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the states, Odes Of Bei

[x_los]

This is a longer chapter than the previous two, and people are still catching up with the last two chapters/acclimating to the format. Thus we'll only do one chapter this week.

I'm going to post this week's poem translations in the body of the discussion to make commenting a bit easier. 

Get your 'odes of bae' jokes out early, before the rush.

Comments

Re: 30. 終風 - Zhong Feng

[x_los]

An alternate translation:

Zhong-feng: Wild and Windy
by Arthur Waley
Wild and windy was the day;
You looked at me and laughed,
But the jest was cruel, and the laughter mocking.
My heart within is sore.

There was a great sandstorm that day;
Kindly you made as though to come,
Yet neither came nor went away
Long, long my thoughts.

A great wind and darkness;
Day after day it is dark.
I lie awake, cannot sleep,
And gasp with longing.

Dreary, dreary the gloom;
The thunder growls.
I lie awake, cannot sleep,
And am destroyed with longing.

Re: 30. 終風 - Zhong Feng

[forestofglory]

These translations feel pretty different to me? I see how the are saying the same thing, but as a linguistically challenged person translation seems so complex and magical

Re: 30. 終風 - Zhong Feng

[x_los]

Oo, so, I think I kind of know this one? This poetic form is HIGHLY condensed, so the relations between the characters themselves can be read quite a few ways *for Chinese speakers* (as well as the reading involving a serious translation effort for modern Chinese speakers, because this is a v ancient form of the language). So more even than most translations, because there's not really an English equivalent of this evocative open terseness, the translation effort involves choosing a *reading* of the text. This is kinda clearer if you look at the How to Read Chinese Poetry book in the Reference section, I'm not sure what chapter goes into it.

Re: 30. 終風 - Zhong Feng

[forestofglory]

The poetry anthology I've been reading did talk about this ambiguity, but since it only has one translation of each poem, I haven't really seen it in action before.