![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_los posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
dankodesWelcome to Minor Odes of the Kingdom!
* 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 29.**
* 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 29.**
162. 四牡 - Si Mu
豈不懷歸、王事靡盬、我心傷悲。
My four steeds advanced without stopping;
The way from Zhou was winding and tedious.
Did I not have the wish to return?
But the king's business was not to be slackly performed;
And my heart was wounded with sadness.
四牡騑騑、嘽嘽駱馬。
豈不懷歸、王事靡盬、不遑啟處。
My four steeds advanced without stopping;
They panted and snorted, the white steeds black-maned.
Did I not have the wish to return?
But the king's business was not to be slackly performed;
And I had not leisure to kneel or to sit.
翩翩者鵻、載飛載下、集于苞栩。
王事靡盬、不遑將父。
The Filial doves keep flying about,
Now soaring aloft, and now descending,
Collecting on the bushy oaks;
But the king's business was not to be slackly performed;
And I had not leisure to nourish my father.
翩翩者鵻、載飛載止、集于苞杞。
王事靡盬、不遑將母。
The Filial doves keep flying about,
Now flying, now stopping,
Collecting on the bushy medlars;
But the king's business was not to be slackly performed;
And I had not leisure to nourish my mother.
駕彼四駱、載驟駸駸。
豈不懷歸、是用作歌、將母來諗。
I yoked my four white steeds, black-maned;
They hurried away with speed.
[But] did I not wish to return?
Therefore I make this song,
Announcing my wish to nourish my mother.
Re: 162. 四牡 - Si Mu
- "Therefore I make this song,
Announcing my wish to nourish my mother." if wishes were horses...
Re: 162. 四牡 - Si Mu
Re: 162. 四牡 - Si Mu
Baike says this is a 行役 poem, which relates to serving in the army, forced labor, or official business causing the narrator to wander away from home. The whole poem uses the 'fu' technique.
Baike is also pretty authoritatively saying this is a poem expressing discontent with the ruler, and it is a misinterpretation to say it is about how they couldn't satisfy their loyalty to the ruler and filial piety simultaneously. So rulers would use the poem to show appreciation for the hardships of the workers. Baike proceeds to say all the famous interpretations that turn the 'complain' aspect of the poem into 'beauty' are incorrect.