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

197. 小弁 - Xiao Bian

[x_los]

弁彼鸒斯、归飞提提。
民莫不谷、我独于罹。
何辜于天、我罪伊何。
心之忧矣、云如之何。

With flapping wings the crows,
Come back, flying all in a flock.
Other people all are happy,
And I only am full of misery.
What is my offence against Heaven?
What is my crime?
My heart is sad; -
What is to be done?

踧踧周道、鞫为茂草。
我心忧伤、惄焉如擣。
假寐永叹、维忧用老。
心之忧矣、疢如疾首。

The way to Zhou should be level and easy,
But it is all overgrown with rank grass.
My heart is wounded with sorrow,
And I think till I feel as if pounded [all over].
I lie down undressed, and sigh continually;
Through my grief I am growing old.
My heart is sad; -
It puts me in pain like a headache.

维桑与梓、必恭敬止。
靡瞻匪父、靡依匪母。
不属于毛、不离于裹。
天之生我、我辰安在。

Even the mulberry trees and the Zi,
Must be regarded with reverence :
But no one is to be looked up to like a father;
No one is to be depended on like a mother.
Have I not a connection with the hairs [of my father]?
Did I not dwell in the womb [of my mother]?
O Heaven who gave me birth!
How was it at such an inauspicious time?

菀彼柳斯、鸣蜩嘒嘒。
有漼者渊、萑苇淠淠。
譬彼舟流、不知所届。
心之忧矣、不遑假寐。

Luxuriant grow those willows,
And the cicadas [on them] go hui-hui.
Deep looks the pool,
And abundantly grow the rushes and reeds [about it],
[But] I am like a boat adrift, -
Where it will go you know not.
My heart is sad; -
I have not leisure to lie down [even] undressed.

鹿斯之奔、维足伎伎。
雉之朝雊、尚求其雌。
譬彼坏木、疾用无枝。
心之忧矣、宁莫之知。

The stag is running away,
But his legs move slowly.
The pheasant crows in the morning,
Seeking his mate.
I am like a ruined tree,
Stript by disease of all its branches.
My heart is sad; -
How is it that no one knows me?

相彼投兔、尚或先之。
行有死人、尚或墐之。
君子秉心、维其忍之。
心之忧矣、涕既陨之。

Look at the hare seeking protection; -
Some one will step in before and save it.
One the road there is a dead man;
Some one will bury him.
[But] such is the heart of our sovereign,
That there is nothing he cannot bear to do.
My heart is sad,
So that my tears are falling down.

君子信谗、如或醻之。
君子不惠、不舒究之。
伐木掎矣、析薪杝矣。
舍彼有罪、予之佗矣。

Our sovereign believes slanders,
As readily as he joins in the pledge cup.
Our sovereign is unkind,
And does not leisurely examine into things.
The tree-fellers follow the lean of the tree;
The faggot-cleavers follow the direction of the grain;
[But] he lets alone the guilty,
And imputes guilt to me.

莫高匪山、莫浚匪泉。
君子无易由言、耳属于垣。
无逝我梁、无发我笱。
我躬不阅、遑恤我后。

There is nothing higher than a mountain;
There is nothing deeper than a [great] spring.
Our sovereign should not lightly utter his words,
Lest an ear be laid close to the wall.
Do not approach my dam;
Do not remove my basket.
My person is rejected; -
Of what use is it to care for what may come after?

Re: 197. 小弁 - Xiao Bian

[x_los]

This is, again, a much better 'decade' than some of the minor odes.

"The way to Zhou should be level and easy," any significance to Zhou here?

This is an evocative one.

Re: 197. 小弁 - Xiao Bian

[x_los]

II. v. 3.: LAMENT OF A DEFAMED AND BANISHED PRINCE.†
There go the rooks, all flying homeward,
Flock after flock, in bustling glee;
Around me there is none unhappy,
I am alone in misery!
Wherein have I offended Heaven?
My guilt—whence doth it then accrue?
My soul is full of heaviness:
Alas, I know not what to do.
[225]
Once trodden smooth was Chow’s great highway,
All o’er it now rank grasses grow.
It grieves, it pains my heart to see it:
Each thought comes like a stunning blow.
Sleep without comfort,* sighs continual,—
My sorrow brings on age amain;
My heart is full of heaviness,
And throbs as throbs an aching brain.
The trees† around his native village
A man with fond regard must view.
I looked to none as to my father,
None than my mother found more true.
Are not these very hairs my father’s?
Hung I not once on a mother’s breast?
O that, when Heaven thus gave me being,
My time had been in time of rest!
Amid the green luxuriant willows
With clamour the cicadas grind;
And o’er the deep dark standing water
Bend rush and reed before the wind.
Myself am like a drifting vessel,
And whither destined do not know;
My soul is full of heaviness;
E’en roughest rest* must I forego.
The stag, with all his wild careering,
Still runs reluctant (from the herd).
The pheasant, crowing in the morning,
Crows but for his companion bird.
[226]
Myself am like a tree death-stricken,
Reft of its branches by disease;
My soul is full of heaviness;
How is it none my trouble sees?
See the chased hare when seeking refuge;
Some, sure, will interpose to save.
Lies a dead man upon the highway,
Some, sure, will dig for him a grave.
And should a king suppress all feeling,
And bear unmoved the sight of woe?
My soul is full of heaviness:
My tears run down in ceaseless flow.
The king lends ear to the maligner,
Responding, aye, as to a pledge.*
He lacks the charitable spirit,
Stays not to test what men allege.
In felling trees men note their leanings,
In cleaving wood they note its grain;—
(Not so with him); he clears the guilty,
And I, the guiltless, bear the pain.
Nought may be higher than a mountain,†
Nought may be deeper than a spring.
Walls may have ears: let words not lightly
Be uttered even by a king.
“Yet leave alone my fishing dam;‡
“My wicker-nets—remove them not:
“Myself am spurned;—some vacant hour
“May bring compassion for my lot.”

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

Re: 197. 小弁 - Xiao Bian

[superborb]

Baike says there are a few legends about who wrote this poem / which particular prince was banished, but that these legends are not entirely believed, but are useful to help understand the meaning of the poem.

mulberry and Zi: [this phrase is now in a dictionary as meaning '(literary) native place, homeland'] in ancient times, mulberry and Zi were planted near residences. They then became an antonomasia for 'homeland'