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

202. 蓼莪 - Liao E

[x_los]

蓼蓼者莪、匪莪伊蒿。
哀哀父母、生我劬劳。

Long and large grows the e; -
It is not the e but the hao.
Alas! alas! my parents,
With what toil ye gave me birth!

蓼蓼者莪、匪莪伊蔚。
哀哀父母、生我劳瘁。

Long and large grows the e; -
It is not the e but the wei.
Alas! alas! my parents,
With what toil and suffering ye gave me birth!

瓶之罊矣、维罍之耻。
鲜民之生、不如死之久矣。
无父何怙、无母何恃。
出则衔恤、入则靡至。

When the pitcher is exhausted,
It is the shame of the jar.
Than to live an orphan,
It would be better to have been long dead.
Fatherless, who is there to rely on?
Motherless, who is there to depend on?
When I go abroad, I carry my grief with me;
When I come home, I have no one to go to.

父兮生我、母兮鞠我。
拊我畜我、长我育我。
顾我复我、出入腹我。
欲报之德、昊天罔极。

O my father, who begat me!
O my mother, who nourished me!
Ye indulged me, ye fed me,
Ye held me up, ye supported me,
Ye looked after me, ye never left me,
Out and in ye bore me in your arms.
If I would return your kindness,
It is like great Heaven, illimitable,

南山烈烈、飘风发发。
民莫不谷、我独何害。

Cold and bleak is the Southern hill;
The rushing wind is very fierce.
People all are happy; -
Why am I alone thus miserable?

南山律律、飘风弗弗。
民莫不谷、我独不卒。

The Southern hill is very steep;
The rushing wind is blustering.
People all are happy; -
I alone have been unable to finish [my duty].

Re: 202. 蓼莪 - Liao E

[x_los]

"Long and large grows the e; -
It is not the e but the hao."

"Long and large grows the e; -
It is not the e but the wei."

"When the pitcher is exhausted,
It is the shame of the jar."

all these stanza beginnings are very ??

Re: 202. 蓼莪 - Liao E

[x_los]

II. v. 8.: THE ORPHAN.
How tall and strong the southernwood has grown!
Ah no!—the tansy* rather.
O mother mine! O father!
And for my life what travail ye have known!
[233]
Yea, tall and strong the southernwood I see;
Nay, wormwood—somewhat other.
O father mine! O mother!
And for my life what toil and pain had ye!
Ah, when no more the flagon is supplied,
Disgrace befals the jar.*
O better lot by far
Than orphaned life, to long ago have died!
The fatherless—in whom shall he confide?
The motherless find rest?
Abroad, with grief suppressed
He goes; returns,—none hastens to his side
O father, thou didst give my life to me!
O mother, thou didst nourish
And comfort me, and cherish
And rear and train me from my infancy,
And watch and tend and to thy bosom press
At parting or return!
To requite such love I burn,
But, like Great Heaven itself, ’tis measureless.
Around South Hill’s bleak eminences moan
The battling, wheeling winds!
Ah, while none other finds
Life robb’d of joy, why suffer I alone?
Yea, round South Hill’s acclivities and bluffs
The circling storm-wind beats.
Round me is none but meets
With joy in life: I only meet rebuffs.
[234]

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

Re: 202. 蓼莪 - Liao E

[superborb]

Baike says the plants are because the e (zedoary) are edible and useful. They also grow as a thicket, so they are metaphorically filial. The other two plants are grown in a scattered way, and also not edible, so they are not useful or filial.

The pitcher draws water from the jar, so if the pitcher is empty then it's the jar's fault, like the son who cannot do his filial duty.