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

Re: 102. 甫田 - Fu Tian

[x_los]

Don't go chasin' waterfalls/just stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to--

'Do not think of winning people far away; -
Your toiling heart will be grieved.' is this about not trying to chase the favour of unknown masses/important people, and instead cultivating relationships with those close to you?

I don't get the closer in relation to this. (Though Jewish kids don't have their first haircut for several years, so perhaps there's an analogous custom in play determining the age of the first haircut?)

Re: 102. 甫田 - Fu Tian

[superborb]

Baike says the textual reading is that it's a wife missing her husband, so the last stanza is her imagining him returning to see his son who has grown up. The hair is that ancient boys had their hair in two topknots, and at 20 the boy would get the cap / adult hat.

Re: 102. 甫田 - Fu Tian

[llonkrebboj]

My two cents, casual translation, and also simplified + pinyin bc I can't read all the words and fanti is so pretty!!!!! but RIP I cannot read it. Gonna give a quick once over and consult baidu/learning forums tomorrow!

无田甫田 维莠骄骄
Wú tián fǔ tián wéi yǒu jiāo jiāo
till not a plot too large, only the weeds will grow tall and proud
无思远人 劳心忉忉
wú sī yuǎn rén láo xīn dāo dāo
think not of the one far away, the heart toils - weighed down

无田甫田 维莠桀桀
wú tián fǔ tián wéi yǒu jié jié
till not a plot too large, only the weeds will grow tall and triumphant
无思远人 劳心怛怛
wú sī yuǎn rén láo xīn dá dá
think not of the one far away, the heart toils - frightened

婉兮娈兮 总角丱兮
wǎn xī luán xī zǒng jiǎo guàn xī
Beautiful (HEY) young boy (HEY), hair in two tufts and bunned (HEY)
未几见兮 突而弁兮
wèi jǐ jiàn xī tū ér biàn xī
not many days have passed (HEY), suddenly he's wearing the hat (HEY)

Overall this seems like it's from the POV of a lady in the absence of her husband, left with the duties of taking care of their fields (alone now) and bringing up their son.

She tries to motivate herself in the first two verses, and tells herself not to be too ambitious because attempting something beyond her ability and strength (like tilling a plot of land too big for her to manage) will result in failure (that laughs in her face). Also comparing that to dwelling over futile things bringing only pointless grief.

Then the third verse is something she tells herself to look forward to instead. It's like there's a shift from grounded, practical things to a daydream. So the 兮 (which I LOVE to hear sung because it's a delightful LOUD 'HEY' sound that just sounds so happy and attention grabbing) Like 'oh our beautiful little child, now you see him a boy with a child's two bun hairstyle (age appropriate for 8 to 13yos according to google), then when you see him again as though hardly any time has passed, he'll be of age and wearing the man's hat (弁 bian is the old name of the coming of age ceremony where boys are given their courtesy names and have their hair bound into one topknot and capped)."

^So I thought the above was the only interpretation when I was reading. But then I saw how you said 'is this about not trying to chase the favour of unknown masses/important people, and instead cultivating relationships with those close to you?' And actually yeah!!!!! That totally works too. It shifted my perspective and now I'm in the lovely position of seeing double!

So then using this reading of the first two verses, the third would be an urging to treasure the time you have. To make good use of it. Because before you know it, the boy will be a man. Time continues to pass so fast...