A bit of doggerel from the late-Yuan poet Yang Jingxian: '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...'
The Donne connection hadn't come to mind for me, but it puts me in mind of a really charming love poem by Guan Daosheng 管道昇 (1262–1319), whose husband was Zhao Mengfu -- I'll add it to the list for next week!
Ok. Thanks to Annas Archives i own a free pdf! And thank you. In 1999 and 2000 I worked in a local travel agency in San Francisco sending Alumni from elite schools in the USA to visit China for 14 days. My interest in China is older of course.
Glad you liked it! I did the first draft of this (not all that different from this version) while waiting in line at the pharmacy, and then realized that I had inadvertently translated a Yuan sanqu into one of Ted Hughes' animal poems. (Or at least I think that's what I was subconsciously aiming at.)
Oh, I'm definitely channelling Nash in a Wang Heqing poem coming up next week. Sanqu are so much fun -- I suspect because the nerds never really got a chance to ruin them the way they did with other once-vital forms.
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
The Donne connection hadn't come to mind for me, but it puts me in mind of a really charming love poem by Guan Daosheng 管道昇 (1262–1319), whose husband was Zhao Mengfu -- I'll add it to the list for next week!
I really enjoy Chinese poems in translation. Lu Tung Ping, Sun Buer. Taoist poets are amazing.
Thank you for the invitation. I am unclear though in regard to exactly what-China in general, Pacing the Void, setting up an alumni travel business :)
You might like Edward Schafer's "Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the Stars" (and much of his other work), if you haven't read it already.
Thank you very much. I will read the book!
Ok. Thanks to Annas Archives i own a free pdf! And thank you. In 1999 and 2000 I worked in a local travel agency in San Francisco sending Alumni from elite schools in the USA to visit China for 14 days. My interest in China is older of course.
Wonderful translation, as always.
Glad you liked it! I did the first draft of this (not all that different from this version) while waiting in line at the pharmacy, and then realized that I had inadvertently translated a Yuan sanqu into one of Ted Hughes' animal poems. (Or at least I think that's what I was subconsciously aiming at.)
I think you were channeling both Ted Hughes and Ogden Nash ('The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk') at the same time.
Oh, I'm definitely channelling Nash in a Wang Heqing poem coming up next week. Sanqu are so much fun -- I suspect because the nerds never really got a chance to ruin them the way they did with other once-vital forms.
Can't wait.