Friday Doggerel: Yang Jingxian - "The Flea"
Oh right, I was saying something about shorter and more frequent updates
![A handsomely produced color print illustration of...bugs. Sorry, I can't describe them intelligently other than to say that there are bugs of various sizes, colors, and proportions depicted here. A handsomely produced color print illustration of...bugs. Sorry, I can't describe them intelligently other than to say that there are bugs of various sizes, colors, and proportions depicted here.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcf6aef19-ce7a-41f2-9e72-52ffd92734d1.heic)
A bit of doggerel for your weekend, courtesy of the late-Yuan poet and playwright Yang Jingxian 楊景賢:
小則小,偏能走跳,
咬一口一似針挑,
領兒上走到褲兒腰。
眼睜睜拿不住,身材兒怎生撈?
翻個筋鬥不見了。Small as can be,
The minuscule flea
Can nimbly dance
(With a needle-sharp bite)
From the nape of the neck
To the waist of the pants.
Stare as you may,
Glare as you might,
It’ll give you the slip —
Just a hop and a flip
And it’s vanished from sight.
I’m planning to take a break from literary cats with a few favorite Yuan-dynasty poems next week — you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll gain a clearer appreciation of the utter insignificance of man in light of eternity. It’ll be fun.
I wonder if amatory persuasion is found in Chinese poetry? The poem made me think of Donne. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46467/the-flea
I really enjoy Chinese poems in translation. Lu Tung Ping, Sun Buer. Taoist poets are amazing.