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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 31.**
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 31.**
254. 板 - Ban
出話不然、為猶不遠 。
靡聖管管、不實於亶。
猶之未遠、是用大諫 。
God has reversed [His usual course of procedure],
And the lower people are full of distress.
The words which you utter are not right;
The plans which you form are not far-reaching.
As there are not sages, you think you have no guidance;
You have no reality in your sincerity.
[Thus] your plans do not reach far,
And I therefore strongly admonish you.
天之方難、無然憲憲。
天之方蹶、無然泄泄。
辭之輯矣、民之洽矣。
辭之懌矣、民之莫矣 。
Heaven is now sending down calamities; -
Do not be so complacent.
Heaven is now producing such movements; -
Do not be so indifferent.
If your words were harmonious,
The people would become united.
If your words were gentle and kind,
The people would be settled.
我雖異事、及爾同僚。
我即而謀、聽我囂囂。
我言維服、勿以為笑。
先民有言、詢于芻蕘 。
Though my duties are different from yours,
I am your fellow-servant.
I come to advise with you,
And you hear me with contemptuous indifference.
My words are about the [present urgent] affairs; -
Do not think them matter for laughter.
The ancients had a saying:
'Consult the grass and firewood-gatherers. '
天之方虐、無然謔謔。
老夫灌灌、小子蹻蹻。
匪我言耄、爾用憂謔。
多將熇熇、不可救藥 。
Heaven is now exercising oppression; -
Do not in such a way make a mock of things.
An old man, [I speak] with entire sincerity;
But you, my juniors, are full of pride.
It is not that my words are those of age,
But you make a joke of what is sad.
But the troubles will multiply like flames,
Till they are beyond help or remedy.
天之方懠、無為夸毗。
威儀卒迷、善人載尸。
民之方殿屎、則莫我敢葵。
喪亂蔑資、曾莫惠我師 。
Heaven is now displaying its anger; -
Do not be either boastful or flattering,.
Utterly departing from all propriety of demeanour,
Till good men are reduced to personators of the dead.
The people now sigh and groan,
And we dare not examine [into the causes of their trouble].
The ruin and disorder are exhausting all their means of living,
And we show no kindness to our multitudes.
天之牖民、如壎如篪。
如璋如圭、如取如攜。
攜無日益、牖民孔易。
民之多辟、無自立辟 。
Heaven enlightens the people,
As the bamboo flute responds to the porcelain whistle;
As two half maces form a whole one;
As you take a thing, and bring it away in your hand,
Bringing it away without any more ado.
The enlightenment of the people is very easy.
They have [now] many perversities; -
Do not you set up your perversity [before them].
价人維藩、大師維垣、大邦維屏、大宗維翰、懷德維寧、宗子維城。
無俾城壞、無獨斯畏。
Good men are a fence;
The multitudes of the people are a wall;
Great States are screens;
Great Families are buttresses;
The cherishing of virtue secures repose;
The circle of [the king's] Relatives is a fortified wall.
We must not let the fortified wall get destroyed;
We must not let him solitary be consumed with terrors.
敬天之怒、無敢戲豫。
敬天之渝、無敢馳驅。
昊天曰明、及爾出王。
昊天曰旦、及爾游衍。
Revere the anger of Heaven,
And presume not to make sport or be idle.
Revere the changing moods of Heaven,
And presume not to drive about [at your pleasure].
Great Heaven is intelligent,
And is with you in all your goings.
Great Heaven is clear-seeing,
And is with you in your wandering and indulgences.
Re: 254. 板 - Ban
'As there are not sages, you think you have no guidance;
You have no reality in your sincerity.
[Thus] your plans do not reach far,' ??
'The ancients had a saying:
'Consult the grass and firewood-gatherers. '' and what did the ancients mean by that?
'is not that my words are those of age,
But you make a joke of what is sad.
But the troubles will multiply like flames,
Till they are beyond help or remedy.' Huh, that's kinda touching
'Till good men are reduced to personators of the dead' ?
'As the bamboo flute responds to the porcelain whistle;
As two half maces form a whole one;
As you take a thing, and bring it away in your hand,
Bringing it away without any more ado.
The enlightenment of the people is very easy.
They have [now] many perversities; -
Do not you set up your perversity [before them].' ??
The next stanza is also tough.
Re: 254. 板 - Ban
What's wrong with the lines ending in '[Thus] your plans do not reach far'? It's like saying they don't listen to sages, they are arbitrary and indulgent. They don't speak in good faith and instead mislead, and they're not far sighted / don't have vision.
The gloss on the 'grass and firewood-gatherers' is woodcutters, which is... not very useful... I wonder, given one of the secondary definitions is (used in self-deprecation) boor, rustic, it means something like consulting the ordinary people? But Baike doesn't discuss it further
The personators of the dead I mentioned earlier -- it's people dressed as the dead (Baike here says 'spirit body') during sacrifices. In both the gloss and its vernacular translation, Baike says that the personator cannot speak or complain.
The flute stanza is showing how the narrator wants the king to be as harmonious as the stuff he discusses, and the wall stanza is comparing the people to the wall and reminding the king to not destroy the wall and shame himself.