The Works of Li Qingzhao, poems 1.13 to 1.18

[x_los]

Back at it again with The Works of Li Qingzhao, freely available via De Gruyter's Library of Chinese Humanities in Mandarin and English and via several publication formats, including two open access options (the pdf appears to be better formatted than the ebook). This week we're reading poems 1.13 to 1.18, inclusive.

This collection uses footnotes and end notes to explicate the work. A few of this week's poems have footnotes, so look out for that.

CLP has an episode on Li Qingzhao you might find relevant.

Comments

1.18 佚句 Fragments

[x_los]

佚句

第一

詩情如夜鵲 三繞未能安。

Fragments

I

My poetic feelings are like a magpie in the night sky, circling three times, it still cannot settle on one branch.

第二

南渡衣冠欠王導
北來消息少劉琨。

II

The “caps and robes” fleeing south lack a Wang Dao, in news from the north there is no Liu Kun.

第三

南遊尚覺吳江冷
北狩應悲易水寒。

III

Traveling south we yet feel that Wu River is chilly,
the northern expedition must be afflicted by the cold of Yi Stream.

第四

露花倒影柳三變
桂子飄香張九成。

IV

Dewdrops cast shadows: Liu Sanbian;
the osmanthus sends its fragrance: Zhang Jiucheng.

[see footnote]

Re: 1.18 佚句 Fragments

[x_los]

“It is a measure of the esteem in which Li Qingzhao’s literary works are held that these stray lines are dutifully preserved” esteem would have been preserving the poem, not this Sappho shit

Fragment 1 is good

Re fragment 2, why necessarily ‘even be found’? Quite assumptive.

So what’s the Yi Stream? Part of the allusion I guess, but idk what it means itself.

So fragment 4 is just a v pointed call out tweet

Re: 1.18 佚句 Fragments

[superborb]

The tweet-like quality of these is...high.