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

143. 月出 - Yue Chu

[x_los]

月出皎兮、佼人僚兮。
舒窈糾兮、勞心悄兮。

The moon comes forth in her brightness;
How lovely is that beautiful lady!
O to have my deep longings for her relieved!
How anxious is my toiled heart!

月出皓兮、佼人懰兮。
舒懮受兮、勞心慅兮。

The moon comes forth in her splendour;
How attractive is that beautiful lady!
O to have my anxieties about her relieved!
How agitated is my toiled heart!

月出照兮、佼人燎兮。
舒夭紹兮、勞心慘兮。

The moon comes forth and shines;
How brilliant is that beautiful lady!
O to have the chains of my mind relaxed!
How miserable is my toiled heart!

Re: 143. 月出 - Yue Chu

[x_los]

This has BETTER not secretly be about ministers becoming hermits because I have already written it into a fanfic.

Re: 143. 月出 - Yue Chu

[ann712]

LOL. I think you’re safe!

Re: 143. 月出 - Yue Chu

[douqi]

Isn't all Chinese poetry fundamentally secretly about ministers becoming hermits.

Re: 143. 月出 - Yue Chu

[x_los]

I wish it were a secret the Mao School ever chose to keep.

Re: 143. 月出 - Yue Chu

[superborb]

Regret to inform you that Mao's commentary is that this satirizes how the rule of Chen country's lecherousness. Gao Heng says this is a depiction of how the ruler of Chen country killed a handsome person (????????). But most interpretations are the expected lovesickness etc.

Baike says this is the first poem about the moon and moonlight, which is p interesting bc I think of it as a v common poetic topic