Re long titles, to be fair, he only wrote "11month 4day" for that part. If we English-speakers need "Fourth Day of the 11th Lunar Month," that's on us.
Also, can we get commentary on the character "狸"? I see (from looking it up) that "狸奴" is a well-known word for "cat", but Kroll only gives the definition "raccoon-dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)" for 狸 (and he seems to make animal-related precision a point of pride). Was there a more general "rascally mammal"-type meaning, or were people calling their cat "li'l raccoon-dog"?
I'm here for the emotional journey of running into the word "irredentism," noting with a sigh of relief that it has a footnote, finding that the footnote doesn't tell me what it means, then going through rage, denial, grief, and dictionary.com.
Having looked it up, I agree that it is the perfect epithet for Lu You, so you'll have to be excused on the grounds of being right.
I like the translation of the first poem especially: what Lu does lexically, you convey rhythmically.
So 薄荷 = catnip ! And they knew what it does to cats in Song!!
So amazing
Re long titles, to be fair, he only wrote "11month 4day" for that part. If we English-speakers need "Fourth Day of the 11th Lunar Month," that's on us.
Also, can we get commentary on the character "狸"? I see (from looking it up) that "狸奴" is a well-known word for "cat", but Kroll only gives the definition "raccoon-dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)" for 狸 (and he seems to make animal-related precision a point of pride). Was there a more general "rascally mammal"-type meaning, or were people calling their cat "li'l raccoon-dog"?
I'm here for the emotional journey of running into the word "irredentism," noting with a sigh of relief that it has a footnote, finding that the footnote doesn't tell me what it means, then going through rage, denial, grief, and dictionary.com.
Having looked it up, I agree that it is the perfect epithet for Lu You, so you'll have to be excused on the grounds of being right.
I like the translation of the first poem especially: what Lu does lexically, you convey rhythmically.