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Entry tags:
Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the States, Odes Of Zheng
Back after the Christmas/New Year break! I'd really like to get through the Book of Odes in the next months, so we can enter into our next Tang or Song offering. I'll try to be more regulated in the poem posts accordingly.
Some notes:
* 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.
* I believe the reminder emails have stopped, so I'll seek a new service to run that.
When the second batch of these is up and running, 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.
**NEXT BATCH FEB 1.**
Some notes:
* 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.
* I believe the reminder emails have stopped, so I'll seek a new service to run that.
When the second batch of these is up and running, 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.
**NEXT BATCH FEB 1.**
78. 大叔于田 - Da Shu Yu Tian
叔在藪、火烈具舉。
襢裼暴虎、獻于公所。
將叔無狃、戒其傷女。
Shu has gone hunting,
Mounted in his chariot and four.
The reins are in his grasp like ribbons,
While the two outside horses move [with regular steps], as dancers do.
Shu is at the marshy ground; -
The fire flames out all at once,
And with bared arms he seizes a tiger,
And presents it before the duke.
O Shu, try not [such sport] again;
Beware of getting hurt.
叔于田、乘乘黃、兩服上襄、兩驂雁行。
叔在藪、火烈具揚。
叔善射忌、又良御忌、抑磬控忌、抑縱送忌。
Shu has gone hunting,
Mounted in his chariot with four bay horses.
The two insides are the finest possible animals,
And the two outsides follow them regularly as in a flying flock of wild geese.
Shu is at the marshy ground; -
The fire blazes up all at once,
A skillful archer is Shu!
A good charioteer also!
Now he gives his horse the reins; now he brings them up;
Now he discharges his arrows; now he follows it.
叔于田、乘乘鴇、兩服齊首、兩驂如手。
叔在藪、火烈具阜。
叔馬慢忌、叔發罕忌、抑釋掤忌、抑鬯弓忌。
Shu has gone hunting,
Mounted in his chariot with four grey horses.
His two insides have their heads in a line,
And the two outsides come after like arms.
Shu is at the marsh; -
The fire spreads grandly all together.
His horses move slowly;
He shoots but seldom;
Now he lays aside his quiver;
Now he returns his bows to his case.
Re: 78. 大叔于田 - Da Shu Yu Tian
Re: 78. 大叔于田 - Da Shu Yu Tian
A stronger and smoother narrative flow than most of the other chanting, ritual or work-song lyric poems we've been working with.
He shoots but seldom; because he's keeping a careful eye on his targets and choosing his shots accordingly?
What are the significance of the marsh and fire?
Re: 78. 大叔于田 - Da Shu Yu Tian
Da shu yu tian. 大叔于田. Shu Has Gone Hunting. Poem by Book of Songs Shijing 詩經. Translation by Robert Payne et al., in The White Pony: An Anthology of Chinese Poetry from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Newly Translated, pp. 50-51.
Da shu yu tian. 大叔于田. Book of Songs 27. Poem by Book of Songs Shijing 詩經. Translation by Ezra Pound, in Anthology of Chinese Literature: From Early Times to the Fourteenth Century, p. 23.
Re: 78. 大叔于田 - Da Shu Yu Tian
The fire is to block the escape of the wild animals.
Re: 78. 大叔于田 - Da Shu Yu Tian
Baidu says that modern scholars think the narrator is a woman praising her lover. At the time, you'd call the brothers in age order as 'bo', 'zhong', 'shu', 'ji', so this is roughly like calling someone "third brother" in today's vernacular.