Revised: Sent to Reminder of the Left Du, Cen Can (Tang Shi #99)

[lnhammer]

So here's an interesting example of how insufficient context can trip you up in a pro-drop language. The poem I posted yesterday has three words that indicate who the sentences are about: the first line, the action is done together; the second line, the action is done apart; and the last line, the action is done by "oneself," which often but not always means the speaker's self. All other pronouns, I had to supply. Given the alternation of we-together/we-apart of the first lines and the antithetical couplets that follow, I continued that pattern of I/you.

However, after posting, I learned that the writer had a similar position (Rectifier of Omissions) to Reminder, but with a slightly higher rank. Given that, my sixth line expressing envy of Du Fu simply cannot be right. Working backwards, then, it has to be that all those lines between all have to apply to "we" and the last line is probably also wrong.

So, a revision:

We climb vermilion stairs together
Then amethyst walls divide our duties.
Dawn court, we follow Heaven Protectors—
Nights we go home smelling of incense.
White hairs: sorrow that flowers scatter;
Clear skies: envy of birds in flight.
The court is wise, acts without fault—
I know that remonstrance is rare.

寄左省杜拾遗
联步趋丹陛，
分曹限紫微。
晓随天仗入，
暮惹御香归。
白发悲花落，
青云羡鸟飞。
圣朝无阙事，
自觉谏书稀。

---L.

Comments

[sartorias]

Ah, nice distinction. But what is pro-drop?

[lnhammer]

Whoops -- meant to wikilink the term. Short for "pronoun-dropping," where in some languages if you can infer a pronoun from context or grammar (as in the subject of many inflected-verb Romance languages) in some cases it can be dropped and be completely grammatical.

Mandarin is partially pro-drop -- for example, when replying to a yes/no question, you give just the positive or negative verb, without repeating the subject. Classical Chinese is more aggressively pro-drop, and most of these poems have no explicit subject anywhere in them. Usually, this is best read as being "I" but third-person is often defensible, especially when a male poet is writing as/about a woman.

[sartorias]

Thanks!