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

228. 隰桑 - Xi Sang

[x_los]

隰桑有阿、其葉有難。
既見君子、其樂如何。

In the low, wet grounds, the mulberry trees are beautiful,
And their leaves are luxuriant.
When I see the princely men,
How great is the pleasure!

隰桑有阿、其葉有沃。
既見君子、云何不樂。

In the low, wet grounds, the mulberry trees are beautiful,
And their leaves are glossy.
When I see the princely men,
How can I be other than glad?

隰桑有阿、其葉有幽。
既見君子、德音孔膠。

In the low, wet grounds, the mulberry trees are beautiful,
And their leaves are dark.
When I see the princely men,
Their virtuous fame draws them close [to my heart].

心乎愛矣、遐不謂矣。
中心藏之、何日忘之。

In my heart I love them,
And why should I not say so?
In the core of my heart I keep them,
And never will forget them.

Re: 228. 隰桑 - Xi Sang

[x_los]

So how are the trees and their placement like these men of high station, other than that the poet finds both attractive?

Re: 228. 隰桑 - Xi Sang

[x_los]

The Book of Songs
http://www.readchina8.com/2009/1109/5.html

There are also love poems, let’s take “隰桑，xi sang, Mulberry on the Lowland”:

Beautiful mulberry trees on the low land,
Its leaves full and round.
Now I see my man,
I’m filled with delight.

Beautiful mulberry tres on the low land,
Its leaves fertile and soft.
Now I see my man,
With joy I feel wild.

Beautiful mulberry trees on the low land,
Its leaves deeply green.
Now I see my man,
When talk about love there is no end.

I love you by heart,
Why I dare not mention it?
I burry it deep in heart,
On which day can I forget?

I think you would agree that the feeling this poem projected is very sincere and we know that the girl will never forget her love.

Re: 228. 隰桑 - Xi Sang

[ann712]

Mulberry trees are considered divine? A bridge between Earth and Heaven. Maybe the men of high station create a sort of heaven on earth?

Re: 228. 隰桑 - Xi Sang

[superborb]

Baike says that in feudal times, scholars never read it as a love poem, but of course most modern people think of it as a love poem and specifically as women's poems.

Also in addition to the mulberry being a symbol of "the beauty of youth", it is an optimal place to have a tryst -- so Baike says the first three stanzas are her imagining a tryst.