Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the States, Odes Of Yong

[x_los]

First off, THANK YOU for your email and poem responses this week! Please do check out each others' thoughts in the comments. There's some fun stuff to build off of, and it's less intimidating to offer up some thoughts if we're having a conversation. I'm looking forward to getting into these this evening. 

Some notes:

* Two members asked for weekly email reminders on Saturday, so I've figured out how to set that up. If you did NOT get an email yesterday, I haven't got you on the list. If you'd like to be on the list, please let me know!

If you would like *not* to be on the list, let's see whether the first Automated Email on Saturday has an unsubscribe option? If it doesn't, please just respond 'unsubscribe' or something and I'll take you off the reminder.

* One member asked that we do a classic Tang collection right after this one, for something a bit more modern and approachable (she phrased it as the difference between Chaucer and Shakespeare). Unless there are objections, I'm very happy to jump forward in time--we can always circle back to danker parts later if/when we feel like it, and Tang is regarded as some very good shit.

* If you have further ideas, please let me know on this post. 

* IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN, please also let me know on this post. I think we're getting to a more stable point, where a handful of additional commenters would be welcome?

* If you haven't read it yet, chapter one, on tetrasyllabic shi poetry, in How to Read Chinese Poetry is hugely useful for the Book of Odes, imo.



Thank you!

Comments

50. 定之方中 - Ding Zhi Fang Zhong

[x_los]

定之方中、作于楚宮。
揆之以日、作于楚室。
樹之榛栗、椅桐梓漆、爰伐琴瑟。

When Ding culminated [at night fall],
He began to build the palace at Chu.
Determining its aspects by means of the sun,
He built the mansion at Chu.
He planted about it hazel and chesnut trees,
The yi, the tong, the zi, and the varnish-tree,
Which, when cut down, might afford materials for lutes.

升彼虛矣、以望楚矣。
望楚與堂、景山與京。
降觀于桑、卜云其吉、終然允臧。

He ascended those old walls,
And thence surveyed [the site of ] Chu.
He surveyed Chu and Tang,
With the high hills and lofty elevations about :
He descended and examined the mulberry trees;
He then divined, and got a fortunate response;
And thus the issue has been truly good.

靈雨既零、命彼倌人。
星言夙駕、說于桑田。
匪直也人、秉心塞淵、騋牝三千。

When the good rains had fallen,
He would order his groom,
By starlight, in the morning, to yoke his carriage,
And would then stop among the mulberry trees and fields.
But not only thus did he show what he was; -
Maintaining in his heart a profound devotion to his duties,
His tall horses and mares amounted to three thousand.

Re: 50. 定之方中 - Ding Zhi Fang Zhong

[x_los]

The first line confuses me a bit?

Why is stopping in the fields significant?

There's something inherently funny in just ending this with 'and he had a FUCKTON of horses'.

Re: 50. 定之方中 - Ding Zhi Fang Zhong

[kitsunec4]

If it makes you feel any better, it looks like people ask about this on Baidu, so it's not just us. I think we're missing historical/cultural context.

This particular one is also in a very dense format wherein I find it so difficult to read in the Chinese I'm pretty much only understanding anything because there is an English translation.

Re: 50. 定之方中 - Ding Zhi Fang Zhong

[between4walls]

This reminds me of W.B. Yeats's "I will arise now and go to Innisfree." More about the creation of a mood/image of retreat. Here, tho, that image is undercut by the last few lines which imply he is ready for war at any time.

Re: 50. 定之方中 - Ding Zhi Fang Zhong

[superborb]

The Baidu entry says something about how construction of mansions required waiting until the fixed stars appear so that orientation can be determined, and the vernacular translation they give is 定星现于天正中: when the fixed star is in the middle of the sky.

Unless I'm missing something, Baidu just says the stopping in the fields is to show that he's personally going to supervise farming bc agricultural production is so important