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

[x_los]

* 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.**

Comments

114. 蟋蟀 - Xi Shuai

[x_los]

蟋蟀在堂、歲聿其莫。
今我不樂、日月其除。
無已大康、職思其居。
好樂無荒、良士瞿瞿。

The cricket is in the hall,
And the year is drawing to a close.
If we do not enjoy ourselves now,
The days and months will be leaving us.
But let us not go to great excess;
Let us first think of the duties of our position;
Let us not be wild in our love of enjoyment.
The good man is anxiously thoughtful.

蟋蟀在堂、歲聿其逝。
今我不樂、日月其邁。
無已大康、職思其外。
好樂無荒、良士蹶蹶。

The cricket is in the hall,
And the year is passing away.
If we do not enjoy ourselves now,
The days and months will have gone.
But let us not go to great excess;
Let us first send our thoughts beyond the present;
Let us not be wild in our love of enjoyment.
The good man is ever diligent.

蟋蟀在堂、役車其休。
今我不樂、日月其慆。
無已大康、職思其憂。
好樂無荒、良士休休。

The cricket is in the hall,
And our carts stand unemployed.
If we do not enjoy ourselves now,
The days and months will have gone by.
But let us not go to an excess;
Let us first think of the griefs that may arise;
Let us not be wild in our love of enjoyment.
The good man is quiet and serene.

Re: 114. 蟋蟀 - Xi Shuai

[x_los]

Make hay while the sun shines, but let's not go crazy and fuck everything up for future-us.

Re: 114. 蟋蟀 - Xi Shuai

[(Anonymous)]

Cricket envy from the prudent ants. Throw off that innate behaviour compulsion little fellas. You can always eat the cricket if winter comes and you’re unprepared.

Re: 114. 蟋蟀 - Xi Shuai

[superborb]

For mdzs nonsense, 莫 (in the second line) is Mo Xuanyu's Mo. In the context of this poem, Baike says it's the archaic word for sunset.

The importance of the cricket is that it's an indication of seasons changing