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

54. 載馳 - Zai Chi

[x_los]

載馳載驅、歸唁衛侯。
驅馬悠悠、言至于漕。
大夫跋涉、我心則憂。

I would have galloped my horses and whipt them,
Returning to condole with the marquis of Wei.
I would have urged them all the long way,
Till I arrived at Cao.
A great officer has gone, over the hills and through the rivers;
But my heart is full of sorrow.

既不我嘉、不能旋反。
視爾不臧、我思不遠。
既不我嘉、不能旋濟。
視爾不臧、我思不閟。

You disapproved of my [proposal],
And I cannot return to [Wei];
But I regard you as in the wrong,
And cannot forget my purpose.
You disapproved of my purpose,
But I cannot return across the streams;
But I regard you as in the wrong,
And cannot shut out my thoughts.

陟彼阿丘、言采其蝱。
女子善懷、亦各有行。
許人尤之、眾穉且狂。

I will ascend that mound with the steep side,
And gather the mother-of-pearl lilies.
I might, as a woman, have many thoughts,
But every one of them was practicable.
The people of Xu blame me,
But they are all childish and hasty [in their conclusions].

我行其野、芃芃其麥。
控于大邦、誰因誰極。
大夫君子、無我有尤。
百爾所思、不如我所之。

I would have gone through the country,
Amidst the wheat so luxuriant.
I would have carried the case before the great State.
On whom should I have relied? Who would come [to the help of Wei]?
Ye great officers and gentlemen,
Do not condemn me.
The hundred plans you think of
Are not equal to the course I was going to take.

Re: 54. 載馳 - Zai Chi

[x_los]

Saved you an embarrassing google: I don't think it's the same Wei? That's 魏 .

"A great officer has gone, over the hills and through the rivers;
But my heart is full of sorrow." gone to condole with Wei? Gone from the world? (Is this referring to Wei? The Yellow River is sometimes a euphemism for death in Chinese tradition, I think?)

Interesting, I think this female PoV is supposed to last for the whole of the poem. Is that speaker an artistic pose, or is this a female poet? Why do the people of Xu blame her? Are we meant to read this as self-justifying, or honest? It feels a bit, to me, like Hamlet's “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum”, which is always kind of suspect.

Re: 54. 載馳 - Zai Chi

[between4walls]

Yeah, there's a question of if she was going to do this heroic thing, why didn't she? What stopped her? Was it lack of help? Or was she just too late?

Re: 54. 載馳 - Zai Chi

[between4walls]

And I think it definitely means "gone from the world"

Re: 54. 載馳 - Zai Chi

[superborb]

We know the actual poet! https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%AE%B8%E7%A9%86%E5%A4%AB%E4%BA%BA/945238 Xu Mu furen. Baidu says this is about patriotism (for once, for her natal family / country of Wei) -- Official from Xu country was sent to prevent her from going back to Wei, and she is upset at him and her husband.

I skimmed the baidu article for her, and it notes that after she wrote this poem to denounce the Xu country officials, she did return to Wei and helped restore the country.

Re: 54. 載馳 - Zai Chi

[between4walls]

oh wow, thanks for looking this up!

Re: 54. 載馳 - Zai Chi

[between4walls]

Here's the wiki article on her, which calls her the first recorded female poet of Chinese history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Xu_Mu