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Passing through Zou in Lu Kingdom, I Made an Offering to Confucius and Recited This, Tang Emperor Xuanzong (Tang Shi #90)
Master, what come of all you did,
Restlessly roaming through that era?
This land is still the Zou clan’s town,
This house is near the Lu king’s palace.
The phoenix sighed: you blamed yourself—
Qilin were hurt: your Way was spent.
I see my offering between two pillars
Must be what you once saw in dreams.
经邹鲁祭孔子而叹之
夫子何为者，
栖栖一代中。
地犹鄹氏邑，
宅即鲁王宫。
叹凤嗟身否，
伤麟怨道穷。
今看两楹奠，
当与梦时同。
The first poem of Part 5, the five-character “regulated verse” (lüshi): eight short lines, even lines rhymed, a couple possible tone patterns (designed to enforce a varied melody), plus the additional constraint that each of the two middle couplets are supposed to be tight semantic parallels (sometimes called an antithetical couplet).
And from a poet flattering Emperor Xuanzong I jumped to Xuanzong flattering Master Kong—and then himself. Ooo-kaythen. This was written in 735 while on an inspection tour of the empire that passed through southwestern Shandong, where Confucius was born in the town of Zou in what was then the Warring States kingdom of Lu. The lines about the phoenix and qilin (roughly equivalent to a unicorn, only with deer antlers) refer to portents mentioned in the Analects. Confucius interpreted a dream of an offering to him, as if dead, made between two pillars as a presentiment of his death.
---L.
Passing through Zou in Lu Kingdom, I Made an Offering to Confucius and Recited This, Tang Emperor Xuanzong (Tang Shi #90)
Master, what come of all you did,
Restlessly roaming through that era?
This land is still the Zou clan’s town,
This house is near the Lu king’s palace.
The phoenix sighed: you blamed yourself—
Qilin were hurt: your Way was spent.
I see my offering between two pillars
Must be what you once saw in dreams.
经邹鲁祭孔子而叹之
夫子何为者，
栖栖一代中。
地犹鄹氏邑，
宅即鲁王宫。
叹凤嗟身否，
伤麟怨道穷。
今看两楹奠，
当与梦时同。
The first poem of Part 5, the five-character “regulated verse” (lüshi): eight short lines, even lines rhymed, a couple possible tone patterns (designed to enforce a varied melody), plus the additional constraint that each of the two middle couplets are supposed to be tight semantic parallels (sometimes called an antithetical couplet).
And from a poet flattering Emperor Xuanzong I jumped to Xuanzong flattering Master Kong—and then himself. Ooo-kaythen. This was written in 735 while on an inspection tour of the empire that passed through southwestern Shandong, where Confucius was born in the town of Zou in what was then the Warring States kingdom of Lu. The lines about the phoenix and qilin (roughly equivalent to a unicorn, only with deer antlers) refer to portents mentioned in the Analects. Confucius interpreted a dream of an offering to him, as if dead, made between two pillars as a presentiment of his death.
---L.
no subject
Date: 24 April 2020 17:30 (UTC)