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

[x_los]

 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. I forgot to get to it this week--will make a note.

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 8.**

Comments

98. 著 - Zhu

[x_los]

俟我於著乎而、充耳以素乎而、尚之以瓊華乎而。

He was waiting for me between the door and the screen.
The strings of his ear-stoppers were of white silk,
And there were appended to them beautiful Hua-stones.

俟我於庭乎而、充耳以青乎而、尚之以瓊瑩乎而。

He was waiting for me in the open court.
The strings of his ear-stoppers were of green silk,
And there were appended to them beautiful Ying-stones.

俟我於堂乎而、充耳以黃乎而、尚之以瓊英乎而。

He was waiting for me in the hall.
The strings of his ear-stoppers were of yellow silk,
And there were appended to them beautiful Ying-stones.

Re: 98. 著 - Zhu

[forestofglory]

Ear stoppers? I'm imagining ear plugs but that seems unlikely. Some kind of jewelry?

Re: 98. 著 - Zhu

[x_los]

It feels like earrings where a string is threaded through the hole, and the ornament hangs from these. Pierced ears are v weird to me.

Re: 98. 著 - Zhu

[superborb]

Baike says 充耳：又叫“塞耳”，饰物，悬在冠之两侧。《毛传》：“充耳谓之瑱。”古代男子冠帽两侧各系一条丝带，在耳边打个圆结，圆结中穿上一块玉饰，丝带称紞，饰玉称瑱，因紞上圆结与瑱正好塞着两耳，故称“充耳” chong er: also called sai er, decoration/jewelry, hung on both sides of the guan (crown/cap). [source] chong er refers to tian. ancient men had hats where both sides were connected to a ribbon. right at ear level is a round knot, in the middle of which is threaded a jade ornament. the ribbon is called dan, the piece of jade is called tian. because the round knot and the jade is just right to plug the ears, it's called chong er (ear plug)

Re: 98. 著 - Zhu

[forestofglory]

That's very helpful, thank you!

Re: 98. 著 - Zhu

[x_los]

III

The Chu; narrative. A bride describes her first meeting with her bridegroom.

1He waited ’tween the gate and screen,
With ear-plug strings of white silk seen.
The plugs themselves had hua stones’ sheen.

2He waited in the court and stood,
With ear-plug strings of silk green-hued.
The plugs themselves were yung stones good.

3There in the hall he stood and stayed.
Of yellow silk his plug strings made.
The plugs of fine ying gems displayed.

Re: 98. 著 - Zhu

[superborb]

It's interesting that each phrase is ends with 乎而 (huer) -- I don't think we've seen this yet? Baike says this is similar to the use of 呼而嗨呦 (huerhaiyou) in later folk songs