Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Minor Odes of the Kingdom, Decade of Lu Ming

[x_los]

Welcome 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.**

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165. 伐木 - Fa Mu

[x_los]

伐木丁丁、鳥鳴嚶嚶。
出自幽谷、遷于喬木。
嚶其鳴矣、求其友聲。
相彼鳥矣、猶求友聲。
矧伊人矣、不求友生。
神之聽之、終和且平。

On the trees go the blows zheng-zheng;
And the birds cry out ying-ying.
One issues from the dark valley,
And removes to the lofty tree,
While ying goes its cry,
Seeking with its voice its companion.
Look at the bird,
Bird as it is, seeking with its voice its companion;
And shall a man,
Not seek to have his friends?
Spiritual beings will then hearken to him;
He shall have harmony and peace.

伐木許許、釃酒有藇。
既有肥羜、以速諸父。
寧適不來、微我弗顧。
於粲洒掃、陳饋八簋。
既有肥牡、以速諸舅。
寧適不來、微我有咎。

Xu-xu they go, as they fell the trees.
I have strained off my spirits, till they are fine,
And the fatted lambs are provided,
To which to invite my paternal uncles.
It is better that something should keep them from coming,
Than that I should not have regarded them.
Oh! brightly I have sprinkled and swept my courtyard,
And arranged my viands, with eight dishes of grain, along with my fatted meat,
To which to invite my maternal uncles.
It is better that something should keep them from coming,
Than that there should be blame attaching to me.

伐木于阪、釃酒有衍。
籩豆有踐、兄弟無遠。
民之失德、乾餱以愆。
有酒湑我、無酒酤我。
坎坎鼓我、蹲蹲舞我。
迨我暇矣、飲此湑矣。

They fell down the trees along the hill-side.
I have strained off my spirits in abundance;
The dishes stand in rows,
And none of my brethren are absent.
The loss of kindly feeling among people,
May arise from faults in the matter of dry provisions.
If I have spirits I strain them, do I;
If I have no spirits, I buy them, do I;
I make the drums beat, do I;
I lead on the dance, do I.
Whenever we have leisure,
Let us drink the sparkling spirits.

Re: 165. 伐木 - Fa Mu

[x_los]

"The loss of kindly feeling among people,
May arise from faults in the matter of dry provisions." not getting this bit in relation to the stanza

"It is better that something should keep them from coming,
Than that there should be blame attaching to me." yes yes we're all happy when we don't actually have to go out when we said we would bc someone else cancelled

How does the felled trees xing talk back to the poem?

Re: 165. 伐木 - Fa Mu

[ann712]

"The loss of kindly feeling among people,
May arise from faults in the matter of dry provisions." not getting this bit in relation to the stanza

I’m getting

Do I or do I not strain my spirits so we have an abundance of alcohol? Yes I do! And THAT’S why there’s no loss of kindly feeling I’m the shebangs I organised for them after they felled the trees. ( a kind of harvest celebration?)

Re: 165. 伐木 - Fa Mu

[superborb]

Baike says it was written by Zhao Mu gong (https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%8F%AC%E7%A9%86%E5%85%AC/2384065?fromtitle=%E5%8F%AC%E4%BC%AF%E8%99%8E&fromid=7098205). The background is under Zhou Li wang the people rebelled, and there was disharmony in the royal family. Eventually Zhou Xuan wang succeeded the throne, and this poem was written to try and stabilize people's hearts.