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.

* 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!

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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

63. 有狐 - You Hu

[x_los]

有狐綏綏、在彼淇梁。
心之憂矣、之子無裳。

There is a fox, solitary and suspicious,
At that dam over the Qi.
My heart is sad; -
That man has no lower garment.

有狐綏綏、在彼淇厲。
心之憂矣、之子無帶。

There is a fox, solitary and suspicious,
At that deep ford of the Qi.
My heart is sad; -
That man has no girdle.

有狐綏綏、在彼淇側。
心之憂矣、之子無服。

There is a fox, solitary and suspicious,
By the side there of the Qi.
My heart is sad; -
That man has no clothes.

Re: 63. 有狐 - You Hu

[x_los]

...I assume the man is homeless and thus poorly clad but. As it stands. That man has no pants. She can see his dick. So can the fox. Nobody liked that.

Re: 63. 有狐 - You Hu

[superborb]

Baidu is always the most confusing where there are lots of possible explanations for a poem. From what I can understand there are a few hypotheses: wife sees fox, and its appearance reminds her of her husband who has been working outside without clothes to keep out the cold. Alt, a widow is starting a courtship (fox = seductive beast) and she sees that she can help dress this widower