Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Minor Odes of the Kingdom, Decade of Qi Fu

[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.

* One of our members is doing posts on the foundations and development of wuxia. Worth checking out!

**NEXT BATCH APRIL 19.**

Comments

186. 白駒 - Bai Ju

[x_los]

皎皎白駒、食我場苗。
縶之維之、以永今朝。
所謂伊人、於焉逍遙。

Let the brilliant white colt,
Feed on the young growth of my vegetable garden.
Tether it by the foot, tie it by the collar,
To prolong this morning.
So may its owner of whom I think,
Spend his time here at his ease!

皎皎白駒、食我場藿。
縶之維之、以永今夕。
所謂伊人、於焉嘉客。

Let the brilliant white colt,
Feed on the bean sprouts of my vegetable garden.
Tether it by the foot, tie it by the collar,
To prolong this evening.
So may its owner of whom I think,
Be here, an admired guest!

皎皎白駒、賁然來思。
爾公爾侯、逸豫無期。
慎爾優游、勉爾遁思。

If [you with] the brilliant white colt,
Would brightly come to me,
You should be a duke, you should be a marquis,
Enjoying yourself without end.
Be on your guard against idly wandering;
Deal vigorously with your thoughts of retirement.

皎皎白駒、在彼空谷。
生芻一束、其人如玉。
毋金玉爾音、而有遐心。

The brilliant white colt,
Is there in that empty valley,
With a bundle of fresh grass.
Its owner is like a gem.
Do not make the news of you rare as gold and gems, -
Indulging your purpose to abandon me.

Re: 186. 白駒 - Bai Ju

[x_los]

'Be on your guard against idly wandering;
Deal vigorously with your thoughts of retirement.'

So what's this couplet about? Is it even right to say couplet, like is that a thing?

The last line flows a bit awkwardly out of a more easily intelligible stanza.

I think this may be the most competent chapter of minor odes thus far.

Re: 186. 白駒 - Bai Ju

[ann712]

Be on your guard against idly wandering;
Deal vigorously with your thoughts of retirement.'

Don’t even THINK of wandering off mate. If you visit me I’ll treat you like a Prince.

Re: 186. 白駒 - Bai Ju

[superborb]

Baike: the host is trying the keep the guests in his home for the first three stanzas, and the last is him being like, sad they're gone and wanting them to keep in touch.

So predictably, Mao's commentary thinks this is to satirize how Zhou Xuan wang couldn't keep the sages in his court.

The couplet (sentence?), according to baike, is the host being like, don't go live in seclusion. Because it was troubled times, and the guest didn't want to work for the court or to disobey, so the only solution was to go into seclusion.

Re: 186. 白駒 - Bai Ju

[x_los]

I said this on twitter, but for the record:

*filthy description of sex*
Mao Commentary: yeah, so by 'keeping my come deep inside you', we believe the poet was describing the way a generous king would retain good ministers, as opposed to the 'facial slut', who drove scholars into hermitage by offering superficial acknowledg--

Never change, Mao commentary.

Ah, that ending DOES make more sense, ty.