Shi Jing, The Book of Odes: Minor Odes of the Kingdom, Decade of Du Ren Shi

[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 17.** 

This is the last chapter in the Minor Odes! After this we move to the Greater Odes (three weeks) and the Odes of the Temple and the Altar (four weeks). Then, a whole new set of poems!

Comments

232. 漸漸之石 - Jian Jian Zhi Shi

[x_los]

漸漸之石、維其高矣。
山川悠遠、維其勞矣。
武人東征、不遑朝矣。

Those frowning rocks, -
How high they rise!
Over such a distance of hills and streams,
How toilsome is the march!
The warrior, in charge of the expedition to the east,
Has not a morning's leisure.

漸漸之石、維其卒矣。
山川悠遠、曷其沒矣。
武人東征、不遑出矣。

Those frowning rocks, -
How they crown the heights!
Over such a distance of hills and streams,
When shall we have completed our march?
The warrior, in charge of the expedition to the east,
Has no leisure [to think] how he wll withdraw.

有豕白蹢、烝涉波矣。
月離于畢、俾滂沱矣。
武人東征、不遑他矣。

There are swine, with their legs white,
All wading through streams.
The moon also is in the Hyades,
Which will bring still greater rain.
The warrior, in charge of the expedition to the east,
Has no leisure [to think] of anything but this.

Re: 232. 漸漸之石 - Jian Jian Zhi Shi

[x_los]

so the first couple xing's are a little 'what's the connection?', but this one is wild: "There are swine, with their legs white,
All wading through streams.
The moon also is in the Hyades,"

Re: 232. 漸漸之石 - Jian Jian Zhi Shi

[superborb]

Baike says that the boar wading through the waves might be an existing meteorological proverb, and might indicate a celestial phenomenon. So it might be describing common indications of torrential rain.