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

69. 中谷有蓷 - Zhong Gu

[x_los]

中谷有蓷、暵其乾矣。
有女仳離、嘅其嘆矣。
嘅其嘆矣、遇人之艱難矣。

In the valleys grows the mother-wort,
But scorched is it in the drier places.
There is a woman forced to leave her husband;
Sadly she sighs!
Sadly she sighs!
She suffers from his hard lot.

中谷有蓷、暵其脩矣。
有女仳離、條其歗矣。
條其歗矣、遇人之不淑矣。

In the valleys grows the mother-wort,
But scorched is it where it had become long.
There is a woman forced to leave her husband;
Long-drawn are her groanings!
Long-drawn are her groanings!
She suffers from his misfortune.

中谷有蓷、暵其濕矣。
有女仳離、啜其泣矣。
啜其泣矣、何嗟及矣。

In the valleys grows the mother-wort,
But scorched is it even in the moist places.
There is a woman forced to leave her husband;
Ever flow her tears!
Ever flow her tears!
But of what avail is her lament?

Re: 69. 中谷有蓷 - Zhong Gu

[x_los]

"Motherwort is a plant. The parts that grow above the ground are used to make medicine.

Motherwort is used to prevent or stop bleeding. It is also used for heart conditions, symptoms of menopause, and other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these other uses."

so even the medicinal plants, in the shadiest places, are burning up, and comfort is getting harder and harder to find/with this coagulant gone you can't staunch the bleeding

Re: 69. 中谷有蓷 - Zhong Gu

[superborb]

Baidu: this is a song of complaints by abandoned women, reflecting the living conditions of some lower-class women in the Eastern Zhou dynasty. Lol at the "this is the Shijing poem with the least historical controversy"

Motherwort has two purposes: it's a plant closely related to women (beneficial for childbirth etc); second, it's already dried up and suitable for medicine, so gives contrast between this herb used to promote the relationship b/w husband and wife etc and the abandoned women.