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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.
* Remember you can also look at How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context.
* 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 MAY 10.**
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.
* Remember you can also look at How to Read Chinese Poetry in Context.
* 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 MAY 10.**
217. 頍弁 - Kui Bian
爾酒既旨、爾殽既嘉。
豈伊異人、兄弟匪他。
蔦與女蘿、施于松柏。
未見君子、憂心弈弈。
既見君子、庶幾說懌。
Those in the leather caps, -
Who are they?
Since your spirits are [so] good,
And your viands are [so] fine,
How can they be strangers?
They are your brethren, and no others.
[They are like] the mistletoe and the dodder.
Growing over the pine and the cypress.
While they do not see you, O king,
Their sorrowful hearts are all-unsettled.
When they do see you,
They begin to be happy and glad.
有頍者弁、實維何期。
爾酒既旨、爾殽既時。
豈伊異人、兄弟具來。
蔦與女蘿、施于松上。
未見君子、憂心怲怲。
既見君子、庶幾有臧。
Those in the leather caps, -
Who are they?
Since your spirits are [so]good,
And your viands are all of the season.
How can they be strangers?
They are your brethren, all assembled.
[They are like] the mistletoe and the dodder.
Growing over the pine.
While they do not see you, O king,
Their hearts are full of sorrow.
When they do see you,
They begin to feel that things are right.
有頍者弁、實維在首。
爾酒既旨、爾殽既阜。
豈伊異人、兄弟甥舅。
如彼雨雪、先集維霰。
死喪無日、無幾相見。
樂酒今夕、君子維宴。
There are those in the leather caps,
Which they wear on their heads.
Since your spirits are [so] good,
And your viands are [so] abundant,
How can they be strangers?
They are your brethren, and your relatives by affinity.
When there is going to be a fall of snow,
There is first the descent of sleet.
Death and ruin may come any day,
It is not long that you will see one another.
Rejoice over your spirits for the present evening;
O king, enjoy the feast.
Re: 217. 頍弁 - Kui Bian
"Those in the leather caps" court wear?
"When there is going to be a fall of snow,
There is first the descent of sleet." what's this doing?
"Death and ruin may come any day,
It is not long that you will see one another." is this specific to anything, or just about the inevitable brevity of life?
Re: 217. 頍弁 - Kui Bian
All baike says about the leather caps is that they had an angular appearance, made of white deer leather, with a dome-like appearance. (Unsure how it is both angular and dome-like?)
Baike seems to think the graupel (not really sleet) is meant ominously, like, they don't know when they're going to die.
But yeah, Baike thinks pessimism, social unrest, the future is unknown type thing.
Re: 217. 頍弁 - Kui Bian
Mao's commentary says this satirizes Zhou You wang, who has no relatives and cannot peacefully make merry with his family.
Although the tone of the poem is about a banquet, it also describes the relationships between the aristocrats. Beneath the surface of a lively atmosphere, they are pessimistic and disappointed, so it's a mood of "make merry while you can". It is an expression of the decline of last years of the Western Zhou Dynasty. (Also, Baike keeps referring to the aristocrats as 奴隶主贵族, which translates to the slave owning aristocrats, and I'm not sure if there is some connotation to the 'slave owner' part that I'm missing?)
Baike also notes that some scholars believe this wasn't meant as satire, just a song about enjoying life, but the people reading into it adds this meaning.