Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Lessons from the States, Odes Of Gui and Odes of Cao

[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 are doing a Nirvana in Fire read-along here. Anyone with thoughts is welcome to chime in. 

**NEXT BATCH MARCH 15.**

Comments

曹風 - Odes Of Cao; 150. 蜉蝣 - Fu You

[x_los]

蜉蝣之羽、衣裳楚楚。
心之憂矣、於我歸處。

The wings of the ephemera,
Are robes, bright and splendid.
My heart is grieved; -
Would they but come and abide with me!

蜉蝣之翼、采采衣服。
心之憂矣、於我歸息。

The wings of the ephemera,
Are robes, variously adorned.
My heart is grieved; -
Would they but come and rest with me!

蜉蝣掘閱、麻衣如雪。
心之憂矣、於我歸說。

The ephemera bursts from its hole,
With a robe of hemp like snow.
My heart is grieved; -
Would they but come and lodge with me!

Re: 曹風 - Odes Of Cao; 150. 蜉蝣 - Fu You

[x_los]

this is not any definition of ephemera i'm aware of, w h a t is this xing doing

Re: 曹風 - Odes Of Cao; 150. 蜉蝣 - Fu You

[(Anonymous)]

蜉蝣 means mayfly, so ... tangentially related I guess?

Re: 曹風 - Odes Of Cao; 150. 蜉蝣 - Fu You

[douqi]

The anonymous reply to this was me! Sorry, brain not functional.

Re: 曹風 - Odes Of Cao; 150. 蜉蝣 - Fu You

[superborb]

Baike:

'robe of hemp': daily clothing for the social class of feudal princes and officials . The snow part is bc it's white

Mao's commentary says it's a satire of Cao Zhao gong, and most people agree. The mayfly might also indicate the many lakes of Cao country or how it is a weak country.

Baike spends a LOT of characters describing the ~shortness and beauty~ of the mayfly's life. Also, apparently they will swarm at sunset and form thick layers of their dead bodies, thus an emotional scene.