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

[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.

**NEXT BATCH MARCH 8.**

Comments

137. 東門之枌 - Dong Men Zhi Fen

[x_los]

東門之枌、宛丘之栩。
子仲之子、婆娑其下。

[There are] the white elms at the east gate.
And the oaks on Wanqiu;
The daughter of Zizhong,
Dances about under them.

穀旦于差、南方之原。
不績其麻、市也婆娑。

A good morning having been chosen,
For the plain in the South,
She leaves twisting her hemp,
And dances to it through the market-place.

穀旦于逝、越以鬷邁。
視爾如荍、貽我握椒。

The morning being good for excursion,
They all proceed together.
'I look on you as the flower of the thorny mallows;
You give me a stalk of the pepper plant.

Re: 137. 東門之枌 - Dong Men Zhi Fen

[x_los]

Going on a date, I guess.

Re: 137. 東門之枌 - Dong Men Zhi Fen

[ann712]

Pepper flowers can symbolise satirical intent so I wonder if this is a date that wasn’t that successful.

Re: 137. 東門之枌 - Dong Men Zhi Fen

[forestofglory]

This pre-contact with the Americas, so the pepper here would be probably black or Sichuan pepper.

Re: 137. 東門之枌 - Dong Men Zhi Fen

[superborb]

Sichuan pepper, yes

Re: 137. 東門之枌 - Dong Men Zhi Fen

[superborb]

I think from reading Baike that this might be thought to show cultural customs of the early spring season, where men and women worship the gods of marriage/reproduction, and these types of celebrations/rituals eventually become the fixed festivals we know today.