Poems like this make me think we're missing a lot by not having the whole, like, accompanying drums situation and not hearing them in...English has no consistently agree terminology for which period of Chinese language is called what, so let's call it Old Chinese.
Because I can't help but feel that with the amazing weight and rhythm you get with tetrasyllabic poetry that a lot of them are going to end up being appreciated at the time for the way they sound, not quite like modern limericks but more like the 'relatable subject wittily put' kind of stuff that apparently I can't draw to mind apart from, like, thinking of various clever tumblr riffs because I'm a pleb.
I had to fucking google 'viands' but honestly it seems like the author just really liked food and good for them.
I was about to post and then I reread the bit about fish in a basket and remembered the Yijing (which I will never shut up about, apologies in advance), and also apparently 魚麗 (the poem title I mean) is usually translated "the fish enter the trap" because it's a battle formation.
In the Yijing gua 44 you have 姤, rendered in my favourite translation as "Encountering" [and the encounter is fraught, like, an enemy at court kind of deal], and because this is the Zhou dynasty here the main bit goes
姤 女壯 勿用取女
Encountering A bold/strong woman Do not marry her
but it makes sense because most of the rest of the gua is about the (inauspicious) wedding feast. The second line goes:
包有魚 无咎 不利賓
Fish in a bag No fault No advantage in receiving guests (Or, no advantage in giving the fish packet to guests, could be either)
ie keep your fish in your container, nothing good is gonna happen
and then the fourth line is
包无魚 起凶
No fish in the bag Creates misfortune
ie you've let your fish out of the bag - basket? - and now everything's gone wrong.
[translations mine, and here you can really tell I'm not a translator lmao and I'm also riffing off my two preferred translations]
I dunno it just seemed resonant. That or it's a fun poem about feasting and drinking which, I mean, fair.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: 170. 魚麗 - Yu Li
Date: 2021-03-30 12:32 am (UTC)Because I can't help but feel that with the amazing weight and rhythm you get with tetrasyllabic poetry that a lot of them are going to end up being appreciated at the time for the way they sound, not quite like modern limericks but more like the 'relatable subject wittily put' kind of stuff that apparently I can't draw to mind apart from, like, thinking of various clever tumblr riffs because I'm a pleb.
I had to fucking google 'viands' but honestly it seems like the author just really liked food and good for them.
I was about to post and then I reread the bit about fish in a basket and remembered the Yijing (which I will never shut up about, apologies in advance), and also apparently 魚麗 (the poem title I mean) is usually translated "the fish enter the trap" because it's a battle formation.
In the Yijing gua 44 you have 姤, rendered in my favourite translation as "Encountering" [and the encounter is fraught, like, an enemy at court kind of deal], and because this is the Zhou dynasty here the main bit goes
姤
女壯
勿用取女
Encountering
A bold/strong woman
Do not marry her
but it makes sense because most of the rest of the gua is about the (inauspicious) wedding feast. The second line goes:
包有魚
无咎
不利賓
Fish in a bag
No fault
No advantage in receiving guests (Or, no advantage in giving the fish packet to guests, could be either)
ie keep your fish in your container, nothing good is gonna happen
and then the fourth line is
包无魚
起凶
No fish in the bag
Creates misfortune
ie you've let your fish out of the bag - basket? - and now everything's gone wrong.
[translations mine, and here you can really tell I'm not a translator lmao and I'm also riffing off my two preferred translations]
I dunno it just seemed resonant. That or it's a fun poem about feasting and drinking which, I mean, fair.