Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Minor Odes of the Kingdom, Decade of Sang Hu

[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. 

* 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.**

Comments

224. 菀柳 - Wan Liu

[x_los]

有菀者柳、不尚息焉。
上帝甚蹈、無自暱焉。
俾予靖之、後予極焉。

There is a luxuriant willow tree; -
Who would not wish to rest [under it]?
[But this] god is very changeable; -
Do not approach him.
If I were to [try and] order his affairs,
His demands afterwards would be extreme.

有菀者柳、不尚愒焉。
上帝甚蹈、無自瘵焉。
俾予靖之、後予邁焉。

There is a luxuriant willow tree; -
Who would not wish to take shelter [under it]?
[But this] god is very changeable,
Do not get yourself into trouble with him.
If I were to [try and] order his affairs,
His demands on me afterwards would be beyond measure.

有鳥高飛、亦傅于天。
彼人之心、于何其臻。
曷予靖之、居以凶矜。

There is a bird flying high,
Even up to heaven.
The heart of that man, -
To what will it proceed?
Why should I [try to] order his affairs?
I should only find myself in pitiable misery.

Re: 224. 菀柳 - Wan Liu

[x_los]

So is it--this guy in power has a lot going for him and it's tempting to go work for him and set his estate in order, but he'd be an ungrateful demanding bitch about it, so don't even bother?

Re: 224. 菀柳 - Wan Liu

[superborb]

Baike: no evidence this is satirizing You wang, which is what Mao's commentary says. Wei Yuan says it satirizes Li wang -- Li wang was tyrannical and evil while You wang was muddle headed and soft and evil.