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

199. 何人斯 - He Ren Si

[x_los]

彼何人斯、其心孔艰。
胡逝我梁、不入我门。
伊谁云从、维暴之云。

What man was that?
His mind is full of dangerous devices.
Why did he approach my dam,
Without entering my gate?
Of whom is he a follower?
I venture to say, - of Bao.

二人从行、谁为此祸。
胡逝我梁、不入唁我。
始者不如今、云不我可。

Those two follow each other in their goings; -
Which of them wrought me this calamity?
Why came he to my dam,
Without entering to condole with me?
Our former relations were different from the present,
When he will have nothing to do with me.

彼何人斯、胡逝我陈。
我闻其声、不见其身。
不愧于人、不畏于天。

What man was it?
Why came he to the path inside my gate?
I heard his voice,
But did not see his person.
He is not ashamed before men;
He does not stand in awe of Heaven.

彼何人斯、其为飘风。
胡不自北、胡不自南。
胡逝我梁、祇搅我心。

What man was it?
He is like a violent wind.
Why came he not from the north?
Or why not from the south?
Why did he approach my dam,
Doing nothing but perturb my mind?

尔之安行、亦不遑舍。
尔之亟行、遑脂尔车。
壹者之来、云何其盱。

You go along slowly,
And yet you have not leisure to stop!
You go along rapidly,
And yet you have leisure to grease your wheels!
If you would come to me but once! -
Why am I kept in a state of expectation?

尔还而入、我心易也。
还而不入、否难知也。
壹者之来、俾我祇也。

If on your return you entered my house,
My heart would be relieved.
When on your return you do not enter it,
It is hard to understand your denial.
If you would come to me but once,
It would set me at rest.

伯氏吹埙、仲氏吹篪。
及尔如贯、谅不我知。
出此三物、以诅尔斯。

The elder of us blew the porcelain whistle,
And the younger blew the bamboo flute;
I was as if strung on the same string with you.
If indeed you do not understand me,
Here are the three creatures [for sacrifice],
And I will take an oath to you.

为鬼为蜮、则不可得。
有靦面目、视人罔极。
作此好歌、以极反侧。

If you were an imp or a water-bow,
You could not be got at.
But when one with face and eyes stands opposite to another,
The man can be seen through and through.
I have made this good song,
To probe to the utmost your veerings and turnings.

Re: 199. 何人斯 - He Ren Si

[x_los]

Why the repeated questions when the speaker knows of whom she speaks?

What is 'dam' in this sense?

"If you were an imp or a water-bow,
You could not be got at." ??

Re: 199. 何人斯 - He Ren Si

[douqi]

The word rendered here as 'imp' (鬼) is usually rendered as 'ghost' (per the Jennings translation below). Went down a bit of a rabbit-hole over 蜮 (rendered here as 'water-bow' and by Jennings as 'watersprite'). According to Baike, 蜮 is a mythological water-beast that spits sand grains at people/people's shadows, causing illness.

Re: 199. 何人斯 - He Ren Si

[x_los]

Tell you what though, Jennings' approach makes me appreciate Legge. Never thought I'd say that.

Re: 199. 何人斯 - He Ren Si

[superborb]

Dam here is a dam that blocks water to catch fish

Re: 199. 何人斯 - He Ren Si

[x_los]

But why would a dam have a gate and a whole seeming home attached, like, the poet is not a beaver (unless--)

Re: 199. 何人斯 - He Ren Si

[superborb]

Baike does not say anything specifically useful here, though at one point in its discussion mentions the husband coming home and just wanting to go fish instead of even greeting his hard-at-work wife.

But I wonder if it's something like, metaphorically enjoying only the pleasant fun things instead of participating in the hard parts?

Re: 199. 何人斯 - He Ren Si

[x_los]

II. v. 5.: ALIENATION OF AN OLD FRIEND.†
And who is this? A man whose heart
Is in great jeopardy.
How comes he to approach my dam,
And not come in to me?
[229]
Ah, who is he whose heels he dogs?
Pâu, surely, it must be!
The two pursue the selfsame road;
But whether deals this blow?
How pass my dam, and not come in
His sympathy to show?
I am beneath his notice now;
At first it was not so.
Ay who is this? Why comes he now
Along my path, more near?
I fail to see himself as yet,
Only his voice I hear.
Who cannot face a man for shame,
Of Heaven hath he no fear?
Ay who is this? The man is like
A gusty whirling wind.
Why blow not from the North, or South,
(In front, or else behind)?
Why didst thou come so near my dam—
Only to vex my mind?
While driving leisurely along,
Thou hast no time to stop!
E’en driving quickly, there are times
Grease in thy wheels to drop.
Cam’st thou but once! Why am I left
To look, and long, and hope?
If thou hadst turned and called on me,
Then ease of heart were mine.
To turn and not to call—’tis hard
Such halting to divine.
Cam’st thou but once! Then come had peace:
(No more should I repine).
[230]
The whistle once the elder one,
The flute the younger blew;*
We both were strung upon one string.
If now I seem untrue,
I will bring forth my victims three,†
And swear to thee anew.
Art thou a ghost, a watersprite?
That all approach is vain.
Could face meet face and eye meet eye.
All then were clear and plain.—
Here to thy tune of twist and turn
I set this goodly strain.‡

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

Re: 199. 何人斯 - He Ren Si

[superborb]

I see we're back to abandoned women poems?

Baike acknowledges that because the questioning of the figure ends up being scattered bc of the use of life memories, and tries to frame it as a "dream"