I'm increasingly tempted to think these are veiled threats. Like I haven't read any scholarship about these two - I like to have a stab at poetry by myself first - but I was just reading this like, whew, what the fuck is this translation Mr Legge
Can I do better? AbsoLUTELY NOT but I just have some Questions, like,
南有嘉魚、烝然罩罩。 君子有酒、嘉賓式燕以樂。
In the south is Jiayu* Hundreds of fish in a trap The host serves wine Honoured guests accordingly feast and are happy
*this is a pun bc the name Jiayu contains the character 'fish'
And then the rest of the poem just describes....different ways of luring your guests into a trap? And then there's doves, which probably has different meaning in ancient China.
Baidu, it turns out, disagrees with me and thinks this poem is about having fun eating and drinking. If I'm right somehow, it'd be because this poem relies on a lot of double meanings, like 綏 which apparently can mean 'peace and happiness' but also 'MAKE peaceful'.
Re: 171. 南有嘉魚 - Nan You Jia Yu
Can I do better? AbsoLUTELY NOT but I just have some Questions, like,
南有嘉魚、烝然罩罩。
君子有酒、嘉賓式燕以樂。
In the south is Jiayu*
Hundreds of fish in a trap
The host serves wine
Honoured guests accordingly feast and are happy
*this is a pun bc the name Jiayu contains the character 'fish'
And then the rest of the poem just describes....different ways of luring your guests into a trap? And then there's doves, which probably has different meaning in ancient China.
Baidu, it turns out, disagrees with me and thinks this poem is about having fun eating and drinking. If I'm right somehow, it'd be because this poem relies on a lot of double meanings, like 綏 which apparently can mean 'peace and happiness' but also 'MAKE peaceful'.