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

99. 東方之日 - Dong Fang Zhi Ri

[x_los]

東方之日兮。
彼姝者子、在我室兮。
在我室兮、履我即兮。

The sun is in the east,
And that lovely girl,
Is in my chamber.
She is in my chamber;
She treads in my footsteps, and comes to me.

東方之月兮。
彼姝者子、在我闥兮。
在我闥兮、履我發兮。

The moon is in the east,
And that lovely girl,
Is inside my door.
She is inside my door;
She treads in my footsteps, and hastens away.

Re: 99. 東方之日 - Dong Fang Zhi Ri

[x_los]

So in the morning she's coming to you, in the evening she's leaving. What does 'treads in my footsteps' mean here?

Re: 99. 東方之日 - Dong Fang Zhi Ri

[superborb]

Baike isn't v informative in their gloss, but one of the quoted sources says it's a description of their intimate scenes, which was kind of an interesting interpretation

Re: 99. 東方之日 - Dong Fang Zhi Ri

[x_los]

IV

The Tung Fang Chih Jih; narrative. The licentious intercourse of the people of Ch‘i.

1When the sun is in the east,
That lovely girl I see. p. 108
In my chamber she appears;
There fronting me is she.
She treads upon my footsteps,
And quickly comes to me.

2When the moon is in the east,
That lovely girl I see.
’Twixt door and screen she passes;
’Twixt screen and door is she.
She treads upon my footsteps,
And hastes away from me.

https://www.sacred-texts.com/cfu/bop/bop102.htm