![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the States, Odes Of Wei and Odes of Wang
Thanks for a nice crop of responses! Remember to check out the comments, and thank you to those who've contributed Baidu and other language insights that aren't accessible to non-Chinese speakers.
Some notes:
* Two chapters translate in pinyin into Odes of Wei. This is the first one, not the second.
* I'm posting these two chapters together because they're short. We'll drop to one chapter a week if a chapter hits 'about 20' poems rather than 'about 10'.
* Every week I search the poems' English results to see if I can find any scholarship or neat bits and pop the results in Resources. Here is this week's collection.
* The first of our reminder emails should have gone out on Saturday. If you did not get an email but you'd like to be on the list, please let me know!
If you would like not to be on the list and there isn't an unsubscribe option in the email itself, please just respond 'unsubscribe' or something and I'll take you off the reminder roster.
* IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN or have other ideas, please let me know on this post.
* 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.
Some notes:
* Two chapters translate in pinyin into Odes of Wei. This is the first one, not the second.
* I'm posting these two chapters together because they're short. We'll drop to one chapter a week if a chapter hits 'about 20' poems rather than 'about 10'.
* Every week I search the poems' English results to see if I can find any scholarship or neat bits and pop the results in Resources. Here is this week's collection.
* The first of our reminder emails should have gone out on Saturday. If you did not get an email but you'd like to be on the list, please let me know!
If you would like not to be on the list and there isn't an unsubscribe option in the email itself, please just respond 'unsubscribe' or something and I'll take you off the reminder roster.
* IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN or have other ideas, please let me know on this post.
* 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.
58. 氓 - Mang
匪來貿絲、來即我謀。
送子涉淇、至于頓丘。
匪我愆期、子無良媒。
將子無怒、秋以為期。
A simple-looking lad you were,
Carrying cloth to exchange it for silk.
[But] you came not so to purchase silk; -
You came to make proposals to me.
I convoyed you through the Qi,
As far as Dunqiu.
' It is not I, ' [I said], ' who would protract the time;
But you have had no good go-between.
I pray you be not angry,
And let autumn be the time. '
乘彼垝垣、以望復關。
不見復關、泣涕漣漣。
既見復關、載笑載言。
爾卜爾筮、體無咎言。
以爾車來、以我賄遷。
I ascended that ruinous wall,
To look towards Fuguan;
And when I saw [you] not [coming from] it;
My tears flowed in streams.
When I did see [you coming from] Fuquan,
I laughed and I spoke.
You had consulted, [you said], the tortoise-shell and the reeds,
And there was nothing unfavourable in their response.
' Then come, ' [I said], ' with your carriage,
And I will remove with my goods.
桑之未落、其葉沃若。
于嗟鳩兮、無食桑葚。
于嗟女兮、無與士耽。
士之耽兮、猶可說也、
女之耽兮、 不可說也。
Before the mulberry tree has shed its leaves,
How rich and glossy are they!
Ah! thou dove,
Eat not its fruit [to excess].
Ah! thou young lady,
Seek no licentious pleasure with a gentleman.
When a gentleman indulges in such pleasure,
Something may still be said for him;
When a lady does so,
Nothing can be said for her.
桑之落矣、其黃而隕。
自我徂爾、三歲食貧。
淇水湯湯、漸車帷裳。
女也不爽、士貳其行。
士也罔極、二三其德。
When the mulberry tree sheds its leaves,
They fall yellow on the ground.
Since I went with you,
Three years have I eaten of your poverty;
And [now] the full waters of the Qi,
Wet the curtains of my carriage.
There has been no difference in me,
But you have been double in your ways.
It is you, Sir, who transgress the right,
Thus changeable in your conduct.
三歲為婦、靡室勞矣。
夙興夜寐、靡有朝矣。
言既遂矣、至于暴矣。
兄弟不知、咥其笑矣。
靜言思之、躬自悼矣。
For three years I was your wife,
And thought nothing of my toil in your house.
I rose early and went to sleep late,
Not intermitting my labours for a morning.
Thus [on my part] our contract was fulfilled,
But you have behaved thus cruelly.
My brothers will not know [all this],
And will only laugh at me.
Silently I think of it,
And bemoan myself.
及爾偕老、老使我怨。
淇則有岸、隰則有泮。
總角之宴、言笑晏晏。
信誓旦旦、不思其反。
反是不思、亦已焉哉。
I was to grow old with you; -
Old, you give me cause for sad repining.
The Qi has its banks,
And the marsh has its shores.
In the pleasant time of my girlhood, with my hair simply gathered in a knot,
Harmoniously we talked and laughed.
Clearly were we sworn to good faith,
And I did not think the engagement would be broken.
That it would be broken I did not think,
And now it must be all over!
Re: 58. 氓 - Mang
'Ah! thou young lady,
Seek no licentious pleasure with a gentleman.
When a gentleman indulges in such pleasure,
Something may still be said for him;
When a lady does so,
Nothing can be said for her.'
eugh, fuck off
Why would the engagement be broken if she's lived with him as his wife for three years? Was the marriage somehow unofficial, or is he divorcing/abandoning her despite an official union?
"And [now] the full waters of the Qi,
Wet the curtains of my carriage." was she a ferrier, and now back in the trade rather than labouring as a housewife?
Re: 58. 氓 - Mang
I think (?) Baidu is saying that the theme is that women who fall in love stay in love, while men easily fall out of love. General agreement is that the three years is literal, but one source says that it just means that after a few years, the marriage gradually breaks down.
The carriage curtains getting wet is just that she is now returning to her natal home (and crossing the Qi river again)