Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the States, Odes Of Wei and Odes of Wang

[x_los]

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.

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* 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.

Comments

62. 伯兮 - Bo Xi

[x_los]

伯兮朅兮、邦之桀兮。
伯也執殳、為王前驅。

My noble husband is how martial-like!
The hero of the country!
My husband, grasping his halberd,
Is in the leading chariot of the king's [host].

自伯之東、首如飛蓬。
豈無膏沐、誰適為容。

Since my husband went to the east,
My head has been like the flying [pappus of the] artemisia.
It is not that I could not anoint and wash it;
But for whom should I adorn myself?

其雨其雨、杲杲出日。
願言思伯、甘心首疾。

O for rain! O for rain!
But brightly the sun comes forth.
Longingly I think of my husband,
Till my heart is weary, and my head aches.

焉得諼草、言樹之背。
願言思伯、使我心痗。

How shall I get the plant of forgetfulness?
I would plant it on the north of my house.
Longingly I think of my husband,
And my heart is made to ache.

Re: 62. 伯兮 - Bo Xi

[x_los]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappus_(botany)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_(genus)

Ok so basically her hair's been like dandelion fluff. Tennis shoes, don't even need to buy a new dress--if you ain't there, ain't nobody else to impress.

Rain would probably signal a change in seasons and the end of the campaigning period, the husband's return.

Is the north special? Is that the direction her husband has gone? No, he's east. Maybe a feng shui thing?

Re: 62. 伯兮 - Bo Xi

[superborb]

Baidu is v useless for this poem. The gloss for the rain line just says that it's an imperative, expressing the wish for rain. The word used for north is modern day "back", but the gloss just says the north side of the house, so... *shrug*

Re: 62. 伯兮 - Bo Xi

[phnelt]

You know how many of these poems are like "either about the emperor or a faithless lover" is there any space for now that the resources are going to the front, it's hard to keep up everything at home? It all gets a little less put together when the husband is away.