Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Minor Odes of the Kingdom, Decade of Xiao Min

[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.

**NEXT BATCH APRIL 26.**

Comments

195. 小旻 - Xiao Min

[x_los]

旻天疾威、敷于下土。
谋犹回遹、何日斯沮。
谋臧不从、不臧覆用。
我视谋犹、亦孔之邛。

The angry terrors of Compassionate Heaven,
Extend through this lower world;
[The king's] counsels and plans are crooked and bad; -
When will he stop [in the course]?
Counsels which are good he will not follow,
And those which are not good he employs,
When I look at his counsels and plans,
I am greatly pained.

潝潝訿訿、亦孔之哀。
谋之其臧、则具是违。
谋之不臧、则具是依。
我视谋犹、伊于胡底。

Now they agree, and now they defame one another; -
The case is greatly to be deplored.
If a counsel be good,
They all are found opposing it.
If a counsel be bad,
They all are found according with it.
When I look at such counsels and plans,
What will they come to?

我龟既厌、不我告犹。
谋夫孔多、是用不集。
发言盈庭、谁敢执其咎。
如匪行迈谋、是用不得于道。

Our tortoises are wearied out,
And will not tell us anything about the plans.
The counsellors are very many,
But on that account nothing is accomplished.
The speakers fill the court,
But who dares to take any responsibility on himself?
We are as if we consulted [about a journey] without taking a step in advance,
And therefore did not get on on the road.

哀哉为犹、匪先民是程、匪大犹是经、维迩言是听、维迩言是争。
如彼筑室于道谋、是用不溃于成。

Alas! our formers of plans,
Do not take the ancients for their pattern,
And do not regulate them by great principles.
They only hearken to shallow words,
And quarrel about shallow words,
They are like one taking counsel with wayfarers about building a house.
Which will consequently never come to completion.

国虽靡止、或圣或否。
民虽靡膴、或哲或谋、或肃或艾。
如彼泉流、无沦胥以败。

Although the kingdom be unsettled,
There are some who are wise, and others who are not.
Although the people may not be numerous,
Some have perspicacity, some have counsel,
Some have gravity, and some have orderliness.
But we are going on like the stream flowing from a spring,
And will sink together in a common ruin.

不敢暴虎、不敢冯河。
人知其一、莫知其他。
战战兢兢、如临深渊、如履薄冰。

They dare not without weapons attack a tiger;
They dare not without a boat cross the He.
They know one thing,
But they only know that one.
We should be apprehensive and careful,
As if we were on the brink of a deep gulf,
As if we were treading on thin ice.

Re: 195. 小旻 - Xiao Min

[x_los]

Our tortoises are wearied out,

This relates to the practice of divination via tortoise shells. And apparently all the divination in the world ain't shit if you're not also taking logistical acton.

I like this finale.

Re: 195. 小旻 - Xiao Min

[x_los]

II. v. 1.: WORTHLESS COUNSELLORS.
Bounteous Heaven its stern displeasure
Vents* upon this lower earth.
When shall we have done with counsels
And with schemes devoid of worth?†
Be a counsel good, ’tis slighted,
Be it ill, ’tis entertained.
When I see them at such tactics
I am sore distressed and pained.
In their concord and their discord
There is much to be deplored.
Be a policy a good one,
’Tis by all of them ignored;
Let an ill one be brought forward,
Upon that they all depend.
When I see them at such tactics,
What, methinks, will be the end?
Our divining-shells, exhausted,
Tell no more what plan is right.
Counsellors are far too many,
So can never all unite.
[222]
Though the Court is filled with speakers,
Who himself dare implicate?*
Like men planning routes and never moving,
Thus it is they never get a-gate.
O the pity! in their counsels
Not the ancients are their guides,
Nor great policies their standards:
The last word they hear decides!†
The last word their sole contention!
Like men planning to erect
Homes to live in while on travel!
Nothing can they thus effect.
Though the country be unsettled,
There are wise men, and unwise;
Though the inhabitants be dwindling,
Some have sense, some can advise.
Some are grave, and some methodic.
Yet, meseems, are one and all—
Like the waters from a fountain—
Verging to a fatal fall!
Who will dare to rouse a tiger?
Who will dare to wade the Ho?
Sirs, ye know but one way only;
Not another do ye know.
Act as from a sense of danger,
With precaution and with care,—
As a yawning gulf o’erlooking,
As on ice that scarce will bear!
[223]

https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/confucius-the-shi-king-the-old-poetry-classic-of-the-chinese

Re: 195. 小旻 - Xiao Min

[superborb]

Baike says there's no way to tell if this is about Zhou You wang or Zhou Li wang, but it's around the end of the Western Zhou dynasty.