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

68. 揚之水 - Yang Zhi Shui

[x_los]

揚之水、不流束薪。
彼其之子、不與我戍申。
懷哉懷哉、曷月予還歸哉。

The fretted waters,
Do not carry on their current a bundle of firewood!
Those, the members of our families,
Are not with us here guarding Shen.
How we think of them! How we think of them!
What month shall we return home?

揚之水、不流束楚。
彼其之子、不與我戍甫。
懷哉懷哉、曷月予還歸哉。

The fretted waters,
Do not carry on their current a bundle of thorns!
Those, the members of our families,
Are not with us here guarding Pu.
How we think of them! How we think of them!
What month shall we return?

揚之水、不流束蒲。
彼其之子、不與我戍許。
懷哉懷哉、曷月予還歸哉。

The fretted waters,
Do not carry on their current a bundle of osiers!
Those, the members of our families,
Are not with us here guarding Xu.
How we think of them! How we think of them!
What month shall we return?

Re: 68. 揚之水 - Yang Zhi Shui

[x_los]

"plural noun: osiers
a small Eurasian willow which grows mostly in wet habitats. It is usually coppiced, being a major source of the long flexible shoots (withies) used in basketwork."

So do the waters instead carry these soldiers away from home?

Re: 68. 揚之水 - Yang Zhi Shui

[superborb]

The husband has heard some rumors and the wife is explaining that he misunderstood the situation. She has no natal brothers, so she can only rely on her husband.