Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the States, Odes Of Zheng

[x_los]

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.**

Comments

81. 遵大路 - Zun Da Lu

[x_los]

遵大路兮、摻執子之袪兮。
無我惡兮、不寁故也。

Along the highway,
I hold you by the cuff.
Do not hate me; -
Old intercourse should not be suddenly broken off.

遵大路兮、摻執子之手兮。
無我魗兮、不寁好也。

Along the highway,
I hold you by the hand.
Do not think me vile; -
Old friendship should not hastily be broken off.

Re: 81. 遵大路 - Zun Da Lu

[aeriallon]

I've been in my feelings about this one for hours now—

Re: 81. 遵大路 - Zun Da Lu

[x_los]

Yeah this one has Mood.

This poem is included in Classical Chinese Literature https://www.worldcat.org/title/classical-chinese-literature/oclc/33665984 , and it's possible there could be some commentary in there.

Here is another translation:

Zun-da-lu: If Along the Highroad
by Arthur Waley
If along the highroad
I caught hold of your sleeve,
Do not hate me;
Old ways take time to overcome.

If along the highroad
I caught hold of your hand,
Do not be angry with me;
Friendship takes time to overcome.

Re: 81. 遵大路 - Zun Da Lu

[forestofglory]

Thanks for posting the second translation. I'm finding a lot of these translations stiff which makes them feel very emotionally distant to me.

Also the translations of the last line of each part are radically different!

Re: 81. 遵大路 - Zun Da Lu

[superborb]

Baidu tidbits:
The gloss for "do not hate me" is "do not regard me as ugly/shameful/disgraceful". Could also be "do not regard me as evil". It notes one source says it could be "do not find me disagreeable / do not loathe me".

It says there are many hypotheses about what the poem is describing. In the past, some interpreted as an adulterous woman being abandoned. Or it could be abandoned wives. Or it could be just a farewell poem.