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

194. 雨無正 - Yu Wu Zheng

[x_los]

浩浩昊天、不駿其德。
降喪飢饉、斬伐四國。
昊天疾威、弗慮弗圖。
舍彼有罪、既伏其辜。
若此無罪、淪胥以鋪。

Great and wide Heaven,
How is it you have contracted your kindness,
Sending down death and famine,
Destroying all through the kingdom?
Compassionate Heaven, arrayed in terrors,
How is it you exercise no forethought, no care?
Let alone the criminals:
They have suffered for their offences;
But those who have no crime,
Are indiscriminately involved in ruin.

周宗既滅、靡所止戾。
正大夫離居、莫知我勩。
三事大夫、莫肯夙夜。
邦君諸侯、莫肯朝夕。
庶曰式臧、覆出為惡。

The honoured House of Zhou is [nearly] extinguished,
And there is no means of stopping or settling [the troubles].
The Heads of the officers have left their places,
And no one knows my toil.
The three high ministers, and [other] great officers,
Are unwilling [to attend to their duties] early and late.
The lords of the various States,
Are unwilling [to appear at court] morning and evening.
If indeed he would turn to good, -
But on the contrary he proceeds to [greater] evil.

如何昊天。
辟言不信。
如彼行邁、則靡所臻。
凡百君子、各敬爾身。
胡不相畏、不畏于天。

How is it, O great Heaven,
That he will not hearken to the justest words?
He is like a man going [astray],
[Who knows] not where he will proceed to.
All ye officers,
Let each of you reverently attend to his duties.
How do ye not stand in awe of one another?
Ye do not stand in awe of Heaven.

戎成不退、飢成不遂。
曾我暬御、憯憯日瘁。
凡百君子、莫肯用訊。
聽言則答、譖言則退。

War has done its work, but he withdraws not [from evil];
Famine has done its work, but he goes not on [to good];
So that I, a [mere] groom of the chambers,
Am full of grief and in pain daily.
All ye officers,
Ye are unwilling to declare [the truth to him].
When you hear a question, you [simply] answer it,
And when slander touches you, you withdraw.

哀哉不能言、匪舌是出、維躬是瘁。
哿矣能言、巧言如流、俾躬處休。

Alas that [right words] cannot be spoken,
Which come not from the tongue [only]!
The speakers of them are sure to suffer.
Well is it for the words that can be spoken!
The artful speech flows like a stream,
And the speakers dwell at ease in prosperity.

維曰于仕、孔棘且殆。
云不可使、得罪于天子。
亦云可使、怨及朋友。

It may be said about taking office,
That it is full of hazard and peril.
By [advice] that he says cannot be followed,
You offend against the Son of Heaven.
By advice that he says will be followed,
You excite the resentment of your friends.

謂爾遷于王都、曰予未有室家。
鼠思泣血、無言不疾。
昔爾出居、誰從作爾室。

I say to you, ' Remove to the royal capital, '
And ye say that you have not got houses there.
Painful are my inmost thoughts, and I weep blood; -
Every word I speak makes me hated;
But when you formerly left to reside elsewhere,
Who was it that made houses for you?

Re: 194. 雨無正 - Yu Wu Zheng

[x_los]

The last two stanzas are somewhat unclear to me.

Re: 194. 雨無正 - Yu Wu Zheng

[criminal_negligee]

I'm not quite clear on this either. Maybe the second-to-last is saying that being an official is a zero-sum game? If you give the Emperor "bad" advice that he can't use, the Emperor will dislike you, and/or you suck at your job. If you give the Emperor "good" or useful advice, however, your friends will resent you[r success].

As for the last, I'm not sure. Maybe the gist of it is "I helped you in the past, but now you won't help me in my time of need." ?

Re: 194. 雨無正 - Yu Wu Zheng

[superborb]

The context for the last stanza is (from Baike) this is during the end of the Zhou dynasty during Zhou You wang's rule, when the Western Zhou fell and the capital was moved to the east (the establishment of the Eastern Zhou dynasty), thus, the speaker is trying to convince the nobles to move to the new capital. However, they refuse under the excuse that they have no houses there, fleeing [the pressure?] in the face of national crisis, so the speaker can only weep blood.

Also, the king is Bad and Evil so the second to last stanza is lamenting that if the minister is righteous, he'll offend the king, but if he's taking the crooked path, his friends will be offended.