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dankodes * 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.**
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.**
196. 小宛 - Xiao Wan
我心忧伤、念昔先人。
明发不寐、有怀二人。
Small is the cooing dove,
But it flies aloft up to heaven.
My heart is wounded with sorrow,
And I think of our forefathers.
When the dawn is breaking, and I cannot sleep,
The thoughts in my breast are of our parents.
人之齐圣、饮酒温克。
彼昏不知、壹醉日富。
各敬尔仪、天命不又。
Men who are grave and wise,
Though they drink, are mild and masters of themselves;
But those who are benighted and ignorant,
Are devoted to drink, and more so daily.
Be careful, each of you, of your deportment; -
What Heaven confers, [when once lost], is not regained.
中原有菽、庶民采之。
螟蛉有子、蜾蠃负之。
教诲尔子、式谷似之。
In the midst of the plain there is pulse,
And the common people gather it.
The mulberry insect has young ones,
And the sphex carries them away.
Teach and train your sons,
And they will become good as you are.
题彼脊令、载飞载鸣。
我日斯迈、而月斯征。
夙兴夜寐、无忝尔所生。
Look at the wagtail,
Flying, and at the same time twittering.
My days are advancing;
Your months are going on.
Rising early and going to sleep late,
Do not disgrace those who gave you birth.
交交桑扈、率场啄粟。
哀我填寡、宜岸宜狱。
握粟出卜、自何能谷。
The greenbeaks come and go,
Pecking up grain about the stack-yard.
Alas for the distressed and the solitary,
Deemed fit inmates for the prisons!
With a handful of grain I go out and divine,
How I may be able to become good.
温温恭人、如集于木。
惴惴小心、如临于谷。
战战兢兢、如履薄冰。
We must be mild, and humble,
As if we were perched on trees.
We must be anxious and careful,
As if we were on the brink of a valley.
We must be apprehensive and cautious,
As if we were treading upon thin ice.
Re: 196. 小宛 - Xiao Wan
What Heaven confers, [when once lost], is not regained.
Perhaps attesting to a belief in innate dignity, which stands to be squandered, rather than which must be earned.
"Wasps of the genus Sphex (commonly known as digger wasps) are cosmopolitan predators that sting and paralyze prey insects."
Whatever the fuck a green beak is, we have not seen the last of it:
Minor odes of the kingdom, Decade of Sand Hu, Shijing II. 7. (215)
"They flit about, the green-beaks,
With their variegated wings."
"With a handful of grain I go out and divine,
How I may be able to become good."
a nice line
"We must be mild, and humble,
As if we were perched on trees."
huh?
why two such similar ends in a row?!
Re: 196. 小宛 - Xiao Wan
Interestingly, Baike's article on 如履薄冰, says it's an idiom meaning "as if walking on thin ice" meaning potential danger, be cautious and alert. Originating in the poem Xiao Min (195). [So this poem doesn't get any credit for it?]
Re: 196. 小宛 - Xiao Wan
Though small be the turtle-dove,
It will high in the welkin soar.
My heart is wrung, as I muse
On our sires in the days of yore.
At the earliest dawn two forms*
Haunt my soul, and I sleep no more.
Sedate, shrewd men o’er their cups
Are sober and self-restrained;
More sottish from day to day
Grow these witless and cloudy-brained.
Give heed to decorum, all!
Heaven’s gifts are not twice obtained.
Wild beans that on commons grow
Are the people’s common quest.†
The mulberry-insect’s brood
By the sphex is borne (to her nest).‡
Instruct, then, and train your sons;
You will make them good as the best.
Take note how the wagtail sings
As she flutters from place to place.§
[224]
The days of our life speed on,
And the months are marching apace;—
Up early, and late repose;
So bring to your parents no disgrace.
The green-beaks,* hovering round,
Come pecking the grain in the yards.
Alas for our needy and lone—
Thought meet for prisons and wards!
With handfuls of grain I divine
Whether fortune aught better accords.
Our humble, respectful men
Are on tops of trees, as it were;
Or, as peering into a gulf,
Shrink nervously back with care;
Or softly and fearfully tread
As on ice that will scarcely bear.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/confucius-the-shi-king-the-old-poetry-classic-of-the-chinese
Re: 196. 小宛 - Xiao Wan
pulse: soybeans, here indicating the leaves of the plant
mulberry insect: pyralid moths
sphex: a black wasp with a slender waist, which catches pyralid moths to feed to their larva. Ancient people mistakenly believed they were rearing the moths
wagtail: the name of a bird. looks like a chicken, eats insects by the water
greenbeak: the name of a bird. looks like a small pigeon. Blue-green color, patterned neck.