#mei yaochen

[proustian-dream]

Mei Yaochen, translated by Kenneth Rexroth, One Hundred Poems from the Chinese

[garden-ghoul]

Happy Gushiwensday Sunday, everyone! Tonight we have a social criticism poem by Song Dynasty poet Mei Yaochen, titled "Small Village."

The River Huai is wide, dotted with islands--- you'd easily miss this village on the shore. Thorn fence so full of holes you might be tricked and think the gaps were put there to be doors. A shivering chicken calls out to her flock, wondering if there's food around the barn. An old man, barely clothed in thinning rags, clutches his grandchild tightly in his arms. A small boat's bird-tail tilted in the air plucked of feathers, broken mooring-line. Dried-up mulberry trees are washed away, parched yet drowned, roots drinking only brine. I have no words, only a helpless sigh at calling this poor life of theirs a living. How absurd to call them citizens of Song, to tax them when they've nothing to be giving.

original text and notes under the cut.

小村

淮阔洲多忽有村，棘篱疏败谩为门。 寒鸡得食自呼伴，老叟无衣犹抱孙。 野艇鸟翘唯断缆，枯桑水啮只危根。 嗟哉生计一如此，谬入王民版籍论。

Whew! This was a fun one. While it's in a poetic form, the way Mei Yaochen uses imagery here is really starkly different from the way most of the other poets we've translated do; this is from the standard set of "moved to poetry" emotions, and it doesn't conceal its meaning in metaphor or allusion at all. Therefore, I felt it was actually more important to translate it as verse, because I wasn't sure I could make it sound like a poem otherwise. So each couplet here is rendered as one stanza. Anyway, some notes:

might be tricked --- I just want to point out 谩 from this line and 谬 from the last line as words for deception and confusion. There are only two in this poem, but they make a big impact on me! The first can be read as deceive, disrespect, or slander; the second as deception, confusion, or absurdity. In the first line there's also 忽 neglect, ignore, or overlook. Those are the tone words of this poem, to me: Mei is making the point that the way these people are treated as citizens is ridiculous, unfair, and hypocritical.

around the barn --- in the literal, the chicken just calls out for food. The barn is an invention so I could get this line to rhyme with the end of the couplet.

boat's bird-tail... feathers --- okay so actually what it says is 鸟翘, which is the word for a bird-tail-shaped bow ornament/mooring cleat, but I read it literally as "a tilted bird" and got the image of a boat that's heavily tilted as if the water has abandoned it. The image of a plucked bird isn't in the original either but I liked it too much to get rid of it once I realized what was going on.

roots drinking only brine --- actually reads "[leaving] only dying roots." Brine has a couple good qualities, though: 1, it rhymes; 2, it's water that only makes you thirstier. I think the original has more of a sense that the river has abandoned this village, whereas my translation has more of a sense that the river has turned on the village.

I have... living --- the literal reads something like "sighing 'ah!' that people are living this way."

call them citizens --- I really like the way Mei uses bureaucratic language here, but I couldn't replicate it in meter. The literal is tricky because I don't completely get what's going on with all these characters in relation to each other, but it's something like "It's absurd to include them in 'the king's citizens' and write them down in the tax registry." ie, there is an official record of the fact that the emperor owes them help, but instead the court is taking taxes and no help materializes.

[parchaayi]

mei yaochen, from sorrow (trans. — kenneth rexroth)

[staticfox4821]

The Art Of War By: Sun Tzu

Strategic Assessment

Master Sun

Military action is important to the nation-it is the ground of death and life, the path of survival and destruction, so it is imperative to examine it.

Military action in a state is important because it's life and death and therefore necessary to examine. Þe "Ground" is þe location of þe battle feild gain advantage you live lose advantage you die. Þe "path" is how you adjust to gain victory, find it and you survive lose it and you perish.

MEL YAOCHEN:Whether you live or die depends on the configuration of the battleground; whether you survive or perish depends on the way of battle.

[tankawanka]

The moon used to cast

The moon used to cast #haiku #micropoetry #poetry #AGG #Tankawanka #Cutty #Albi #Alain_Bonkela #梅尧臣 #MeiYaochen

The moon used to castTwo shadows—now—only onePlate on the table AGG20211110for Cutty The “Cutty Poems” by Andrew Grimes Griffin.  Depth Charge: On the five month anniversary of  Alain’s death, I decided to re-read some poems by Mei Yaochen/梅尧臣 /(1002-1060). To read Songs about Sex, Death & Cicadas by Andrew Grimes Griffin, just click on the link. To download a pdf, right click on the link and…

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[pouchythekidd]

If you are quiet and inconspicuous, others will not be able to figure you out. If you are accurate and orderly, others will not be able to disturb you

Mei Yaochen, Sun Tzu, The art of war

[pouchythekidd]

Since you adapt and adjust appropriately in face of the enemy, how could you say what you are going to do beforehand?

Mei Yaochen, Sun Tzu, The art of war

[pouchythekidd]

Without deception you cannot carry out strategy, without strategy you cannot control the opponent

Mei Yaochen, Sun Tzu, The art of war