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.**

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203. 大东 - Da Dong

[x_los]

有饛簋飧、有救棘匕。
周道如砥、其直如矢。
君子所履、小人所视。
睠言顾之、潸焉出涕。

Well loaded with millet were the dishes,
And long and curved were spoons of thorn-wood.
The way to Zhou was like a whetstone,
And straight as an arrow.
[So] the officers trod it,
And the common people looked on it.
When I look back and think of it,
My tears run down in streams.

小东大东、杼柚其空。
纠纠葛屦、可以履霜。
佻佻公子、行彼周行。
既往既来、使我心疚。

In the States of the east, large and small,
The looms are empty.
Thin shoes of dolichos fibre,
Are made to serve to walk on the hoar-frost.
Slight and elegant gentlemen,
Walk along that road to Zhou.
Their going and coming,
Makes my heart ache.

有冽氿泉、 无浸获薪。
契契寤叹、哀我惮人。
薪是获薪、尚可载也。
哀我惮人、亦可息也。

Ye cold waters, issuing variously from the spring,
Do not soak the firewood I have cut.
Sorrowful I awake and sigh; -
Alas for us toiled people!
The firewood has been cut; -
Would that it were conveyed home!
Alas for us the toiled people!
Would that we could have rest!

东人之子、职劳不来。
西人之子、粲粲衣服。
舟人之子、熊罴是裘。
私人之子、百僚是试。

The sons of the east,
Are only summoned [to service], without encouragement;
While the sons of the west,
Shine in splendid dresses.
The sons of boatmen,
Have furs of the bear and grisly bear.
The sons of the poorest families,
Form the officers in public employment.

或以其酒、不以其浆。
鞙鞙佩璲、不以其长。
维天有汉、监亦有光。
跂彼织女、终日七襄。

If we present them with spirits,
They do not look on them as liquor.
If we give them long girdle-pendants with their stones,
They do not think them long enough.
There is the milky way in heaven,
Which looks down on us in light;
And the three stars together are the Weaving Sisters,
Passing in a day through seven stages [of the sky].

虽则七襄、不成报章。
睆彼牵牛、不以服箱。
东有启明、西有长庚。
有救天毕、载施之行。

Although they go through their seven stages,
They complete no bright work for us.
Brilliant shine the Draught Oxen,
But they do not serve to draw our carts.
In the east there is Lucifer;
In the west there is Hesperus;
Long and curved is the Rabbit Net of the sky; -
But they only occupy their places.

维南有箕、不可以簸扬。
维北有斗、不可以挹酒浆。
维南有箕、载翕其舌。
维北有斗、西柄之揭。

In the south is the Sieve,
But it is of no use to sift.
In the north is the Ladle,
But it lades out no liquor.
In the south is the Sieve,
Idly showing its mouth.
In the north is the Ladle,
Raising its handle in the west.

Re: 203. 大东 - Da Dong

[x_los]

II. v. 9.: THE NEGLECTED EASTERN STATES.*
Once supped we from well-laden trenchers,
And thornwood spoons bent to the loads!
’Twixt here and Chow, worn smooth as whetstones,
And straight as arrows, were the roads.
Thereon the great officials travelled,
Plebeians there to gaze would go:—
When I look back and contemplate it,
My tears in very torrents flow.
Here in the East, whate’er the Province,†
Shuttle and distaff none may use;‡
And sparsely-woven fibre-sandals
Must serve to walk on frozen dews.
There, dainty tender sons of nobles
Are journeying on those roads of Chow.
Alack! their goings and their comings
Fill me with sickening sorrow now.
Ye ice-cold rills, from springs escaping!
Do not the gathered fuel soak.
Sore harassed, troubled, sleepless, sighing,—
Enough have our afflicted folk.
Their firewood is cut down and bundled:
Had they but strength to get it in,
Poor toiling miserable people,
Then some repose perchance they’d win.
[235]
Here in the East the sons of nobles
For service hard remain unpaid;
There in the West the sons of nobles
Are in most gorgeous garb arrayed.
There, too, the very sons of boatmen
Apparelled are in furs of bears;
Yea, those of humblest antecedents
Are charged with all the land’s affairs.
Let some of them have wine before them,
They take no count yet of its strength;
And their long-dangling girdle-trinkets
In their opinion lack in length!
—There, looking down with radiant brightness,
Appears in Heaven the Milky Way;*
There, too, stand out the Weaving Sisters,†
Seven stages making through the day—
Yet, weaving through their stages seven,
Nought bright for us do they produce.
And the Draught Oxen‡ shimmering yonder
For waggon-draught are scarce of use!
Though in the East be the star of morning,
Though in the West the evening star,
And though the Hare-net§ show its foldings,
—All keep their paths (nor mend nor mar)!
[236]
There in the South the Sieve* is shining,
Yet not for sifting was it made.
There in the North appears the Ladle,†
Yet ne’er a liquor will it lade.
Though southward there the Sieve be shining,
Here points its Tongue‡ beyond the rest!
Though northward there appear the Ladle,
It hoists its Handle in the West!

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

Re: 203. 大东 - Da Dong

[x_los]

"Well loaded with millet were the dishes,
And long and curved were spoons of thorn-wood.
The way to Zhou was like a whetstone,
And straight as an arrow."

what's this xing doing, and then the following couplet?

"The sons of the poorest families,
Form the officers in public employment." ?


"If we present them with spirits,
They do not look on them as liquor.
If we give them long girdle-pendants with their stones,
They do not think them long enough.
There is the milky way in heaven,
Which looks down on us in light;
And the three stars together are the Weaving Sisters,
Passing in a day through seven stages [of the sky]." ??

Stars in constellations don't do the work of the figures they represent and the poet is salty about it

What's the last stanza doing?

Re: 203. 大东 - Da Dong

[superborb]

The poorest families bit is the narrator contrasting the socio-economic and political status of the Zhou people and those they conquered.

Baike's commentary on the last stanza says something about how even the "sky" was serving the Zhou dynasty to squeeze the Eastern people.

Baike says nothing useful about the first stanza though. My interpretation is that even though the food is there, it's all going to the Zhou people (via this nice flat road)?

Re: 203. 大东 - Da Dong

[superborb]

Baike says this is from the POV of the eastern countries and tribes being attacked/conquered by the Western Zhou dynasty during middle/late Western Zhou dynasty times.

Also, Baike says this is not a folk song, but one written by scholar officials.