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

93. 出其東門 - Chu Qi Dong Men

[x_los]

出其東門、有女如雲。
雖則如雲、匪我思存。
縞衣綦巾、聊樂我員。

I went out at the east gate,
Where the girls were in clouds.
Although they are like clouds,
It is not on them that my thoughts rest.
She in the thin white silk, and the grey coiffure, -
She is my joy!

出其闉闍、有女如荼。
雖則如荼、匪我思且。
縞衣茹藘、聊可與娛。

I went out by the tower on the covering wall,
Where the girls were like flowering rushes.
Although they are like flowering rushes,
It is not of them that I think.
She in the thin white silk, and the madder-[dyed coiffure], -
It is she that makes me happy!

Re: 93. 出其東門 - Chu Qi Dong Men

[aeriallon]

Madder, it turns out, is kind of a salmon-coral-scarlet, depending on what you mix with it as a mordant. This one's got me in my lesbian feelings as well—

Re: 93. 出其東門 - Chu Qi Dong Men

[x_los]

do we think 'grey coiffure' is artistic powdering, like a Georgian wig?

Re: 93. 出其東門 - Chu Qi Dong Men

[superborb]

Baidu says the grey coiffure is a dark green headscarf -- the idea is that she's wearing plain / poor clothing