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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.**
198. 巧言 - Qiao Yan
无罪无辜、乱如此怃。
昊天已威、予慎无罪。
昊天泰怃、予慎无辜。
O vast and distant Heaven,
Who art called our parent,
That without crime or offence,
I should suffer from disorders thus great!
The terrors of great Heaven are excessive,
But indeed I have committed no crime.
[The terrors of] great Heaven are very excessive,
But indeed I have committed no offence.
乱之初生、僭始既涵。
乱之又生、君子信谗。
君子如怒、乱庶遄沮。
君子如祉、乱庶遄已。
Disorder then comes to the birth,
When the first untruth is received.
Its further increase,
Is from our sovereign's believing the slanderers.
If he were to be angry [with them],
The disorder would probably quickly be abated;
If he were to show his joy [in the good],
The disorder would probably quickly cease.
君子屡盟、乱是用长。
君子信盗、乱是用暴。
盗言孔甘、乱是用餤。
匪其止共、维王之邛。
Our sovereign makes frequent covenants,
And the disorders are thereby increased.
He believes the scoundrels,
And the disorders thereby grow into oppression.
Their words are very sweet,
And the disorders thereby advance.
They do not discharge their duties,
But only create distress to the king.
奕奕寝庙、君子作之。
秩秩大猷、圣人莫之。
他人有心、予忖度之。
跃跃毚兔、遇犬获之。
Very grand is the ancestral temple; -
A true sovereign made it.
Wisely arranged are the great plans; -
Sages determined them.
What other men have in their minds,
I can measure by reflection.
Swiftly runs the crafty hare,
But it is caught by the hound.
荏染柔木、君子树之。
往来行言、心焉数之。
蛇蛇硕言、出自口矣。
巧言如簧、颜之厚矣。
Trees of soft wood, easily wrought,
Are planted by wise men.
The words of way-farers that come and go,
Can be discriminated by the mind.
Their easy and grand words,
[Only] issue from their mouths.
Their artful words, like organ-tongues,
Show how unblushing are their faces.
彼何人斯、居河之麋。
无拳无勇、职为乱阶。
既微且尰、尔勇伊何。
为犹将多、尔居徒几何。
Who are they?
They [are like men who] dwell on the banks of the river;
And they have neither strenghth nor courage,
While yet they rear the steps of disorder!
With legs ulcerated and swollen,
What courage can you have?
You form plans great and many,
But your followers about you are few.
Re: 198. 巧言 - Qiao Yan
When the first untruth is received." so what's this mean?
"Swiftly runs the crafty hare,
But it is caught by the hound." how does this relate to the immediately-previous couplets?
"way-farers" why do two of these poems disdain way-farers?
"organ-tongues" ??
What's the last stanza doing?
Re: 198. 巧言 - Qiao Yan
I think the hare part is the narrator saying that he's like the hare, trying to run from the hound/slander but he can't?
Unsure where Legge got way-farers from, the line just seems to say that rumors are circulating.
The phrase the organ-tongue comes from is the reed (of an instrument), so maybe Legge not thinking a reed was grand enough?
Baike's discussion of the final stanza says that it is specifying who is doing the slandering and specifically satirizing them.
Re: 198. 巧言 - Qiao Yan
O far Great Heaven! we call thee
Our Father and our Mother!
Alas that on the blameless
Such gross disorders gather!
I verily am guiltless,
Yet stern is thy displeasure.
I truly am offenceless,
Thou harsh beyond all measure.
Disorder first arises
On falsehood’s first receiving;
And gathers force when rulers
Deem slanders worth believing.
Showed but the king displeasure,
Disorder soon had vanished;
And favoured he (the worthy),
So too it soon were banished.
When kings make frequent compacts,*
Disorder grows with vigour;
When faith they put in villains,
Then cruel is its rigour.
When villains’ words are blandest,
Disorder (most) progresses;
While failure in their duty
The monarch but distresses.
Grand is the ancestral temple;
A master mind designed it.†
Well framed was our Great Charter;
Good men and wise defined it.
[228]
Whate’er be these men’s motive,
I’ll weigh it well and watch it:
Though sharp the hare, and cunning,
The dog will round and catch it!
What woods are soft and supple,—
Our wiser men will grow them.
What words are said at random,—
One’s inner sense should know them.
Ah, glib high-sounding language
But to the tongue one traces,
And artful dulcet* speeches
To men of brazen faces.
And these—who are they?—Dwellers
On a river’s swampy borders!
Yet these weak, nerveless creatures
Give rise to such disorders!
Ye ulcered, swollen-shinned ones!
How should ye be so daring?
But though ye make grand schemes, and many,
How few to follow you are caring?
https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/confucius-the-shi-king-the-old-poetry-classic-of-the-chinese