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Entry tags:
Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the States, Odes Of Tang
* I found the best option for the weekly reminder emails, via Gmail. The external service options are more involved than our purposes require. Does anyone know anything about how to arrange an Apps Script? Basically all it has to do is tell ten people, on Saturdays, to come and get their juice/poems.
Until someone knows what to do there, I'll send out manual messages weekly. If you'd like to receive these and are not getting them, please let me know.
* 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.
* IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN or have other ideas, please let me know on this post.
* 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.
* In case you missed it and are interested, some people on the com did a Scum Villain read-along here. Anyone with thoughts is welcome to chime in.
* PROGRESS REPORT: With this, we're through the first ten books of the Shi Jing. There will be four more weeks in Lessons from the States, because I'm combining the very short books Gui and Cao. Then we have about seven weeks in Minor Odes of the Kingdom, because the short Baihua will go in with the book before it. Then come three weeks in Greater Odes, then four in Odes of the Temple and the Altar. Then we're entirely done with Shi Jing, and can do Tang or Song or something.
**NEXT BATCH FEB 22.**
Until someone knows what to do there, I'll send out manual messages weekly. If you'd like to receive these and are not getting them, please let me know.
* 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.
* IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN or have other ideas, please let me know on this post.
* 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.
* In case you missed it and are interested, some people on the com did a Scum Villain read-along here. Anyone with thoughts is welcome to chime in.
* PROGRESS REPORT: With this, we're through the first ten books of the Shi Jing. There will be four more weeks in Lessons from the States, because I'm combining the very short books Gui and Cao. Then we have about seven weeks in Minor Odes of the Kingdom, because the short Baihua will go in with the book before it. Then come three weeks in Greater Odes, then four in Odes of the Temple and the Altar. Then we're entirely done with Shi Jing, and can do Tang or Song or something.
**NEXT BATCH FEB 22.**
118. 綢繆 - Chou Mou
今夕何夕、見此良人。
子兮子兮、如此良人何。
Round and round the firewood is bound;
And the Three Stars appear in the sky.
This evening is what evening,
That I see this good man?
O me! O me!
That I should get a good man like this!
綢繆束芻、三星在隅。
今夕何夕、見此邂逅。
子兮子兮、如此邂逅何。
Round and round the grass is bound;
And the Three Stars are seen from the corner.
This evening is what evening,
That we have this unexpected meeting?
Happy pair! Happy pair!
That we should have this unexpected meeting!
綢繆束楚、三星在戶。
今夕何夕、見此粲者。
子兮子兮、如此粲者何。
Round and round the thorns are bound;
And the Three Stars are seen from the door.
This evening is what evening,
That I see this beauty?
O me! O me!
That I should see a beauty like this!
Re: 118. 綢繆 - Chou Mou
"This evening is what evening" this is a bit cumbersome?
Re: 118. 綢繆 - Chou Mou
Re: 118. 綢繆 - Chou Mou
Re: 118. 綢繆 - Chou Mou
Agreed. I don't know the rationale for rendering it like that, but IMHO 'What evening is this, / that ...?' would sound more suitable.
Re: 118. 綢繆 - Chou Mou
Baike: the firewood is often referenced in the Shijing when talking about marriage. Firewood is a homonym for heart, so 'binding the firewood' is like the couple having the same feelings. The grass is just glossed as hay for livestock fodder. The thorns are Vitex (chasteberry).
So the stars coming up show the time of the day when the marriage is happening, as Orion rises in the night sky from dusk to midnight.
Aww, "今夕何夕" "This evening is what evening" is used by poets to express sudden joy, esp love between couples.
Re: 118. 綢繆 - Chou Mou
So marriage ceremonies at this point are an evening thing--and that's neat, re the firewood, and also bc I wasn't really sure that 'heart' would symbolise what it might in a Western context. (You get so, so much liver with the English erly moderns. SO much liver.)
Does the phrase come from something, or mean something? Like, would you put it another way?
Re: 118. 綢繆 - Chou Mou