"Ferocious beasts." "Creatures of the baleful category." "Cicada-nommers." If you can read Classical Chinese, you can have a moderately good time looking in pre-20th century reference texts to see what they have for “cat.”
“...to send you off, not to send you away...” - when a phrase is right, it's right. And often it seems like being right is poetry enough. This whole post is most felicitous.
That line gave me so much trouble! I'm still not entirely happy with it, if only because I have a sneaking suspicion that everybody who has ever translated it was guessing.
Re 五白, why not take the middle way (or unwobbling pivot, whatever) between transliteration and translation, and call it "Wu-itey"? Oh...because that's the worst idea you ever heard? Ah. Nevertheless,
“Five White” is a term that turns up in a poem about the ancient game Liubo (see list of translations in this thread: https://twitter.com/porges/status/1253120972820934656). I wonder if it could be like naming your cat “Royal Flush”? Although, the game had almost died out by Mei Yaochen’s time.
Part of the difficulty with the name is that 五白 shows up in some places where it seems to be referring to a type of cat, rather than a name, like in Shide's "若解捉老鼠，不在五白貓" ('Knowing how to catch a rat -- / You won't get that from a [五白] cat") or the poem quoted in 《羅湖野錄》 that opens with "五白貓兒爪距獰，養來堂上絕蟲行." Which doesn't rule out "Royal Flush" as an interpretation, of course, but it suggests to me that the physical appearance of the cat is what's salient here.
"either miao or mao. They can say their own name!"
This radically understates the case. Obviously every cat has his or her own name, and the fact that stupid humans hear them all as Miao or Mao is the humans' problem.
Sensible humans realise that it was the cats who taught us the tonal system of distinguishing meanings. Thus Mao(7), "Rat Walloper," is utterly different from Mao(3), "Table Raider."
Only the best humans, though, have cottoned on to the fact that the feline tonal system is both more subtle and wider in frequencies covered than human ones. Thus humans have no way of distinguishing Miao(143)," "Swallower of Small Rabbits," from Miao(137), "Protects You From Dragons, Stupid."
“...to send you off, not to send you away...” - when a phrase is right, it's right. And often it seems like being right is poetry enough. This whole post is most felicitous.
That line gave me so much trouble! I'm still not entirely happy with it, if only because I have a sneaking suspicion that everybody who has ever translated it was guessing.
Re 五白, why not take the middle way (or unwobbling pivot, whatever) between transliteration and translation, and call it "Wu-itey"? Oh...because that's the worst idea you ever heard? Ah. Nevertheless,
Kill Wu-itey, I'm afraid
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel all warm and tingly upon encountering the word "fascicle"?
Hard not to have a soft spot for the only (?) word that rhymes with "classical"
“Five White” is a term that turns up in a poem about the ancient game Liubo (see list of translations in this thread: https://twitter.com/porges/status/1253120972820934656). I wonder if it could be like naming your cat “Royal Flush”? Although, the game had almost died out by Mei Yaochen’s time.
Oh, this is great -- thanks!
Part of the difficulty with the name is that 五白 shows up in some places where it seems to be referring to a type of cat, rather than a name, like in Shide's "若解捉老鼠，不在五白貓" ('Knowing how to catch a rat -- / You won't get that from a [五白] cat") or the poem quoted in 《羅湖野錄》 that opens with "五白貓兒爪距獰，養來堂上絕蟲行." Which doesn't rule out "Royal Flush" as an interpretation, of course, but it suggests to me that the physical appearance of the cat is what's salient here.
五白猫为四脚、鼻头五处为白色的黑猫。The five white cat is a black cat with four legs and a nose white.
Very gratifying to hear I guessed right — thanks!
"either miao or mao. They can say their own name!"
This radically understates the case. Obviously every cat has his or her own name, and the fact that stupid humans hear them all as Miao or Mao is the humans' problem.
Sensible humans realise that it was the cats who taught us the tonal system of distinguishing meanings. Thus Mao(7), "Rat Walloper," is utterly different from Mao(3), "Table Raider."
Only the best humans, though, have cottoned on to the fact that the feline tonal system is both more subtle and wider in frequencies covered than human ones. Thus humans have no way of distinguishing Miao(143)," "Swallower of Small Rabbits," from Miao(137), "Protects You From Dragons, Stupid."
There's also the extended "miao" (2421552 in Chao tone notation), meaning "I Have Never Been Fed, Even Once"