lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
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It’s just one chopstick,
Both ends vermilion—
In five or six months, it’s worn smooth. / In Fifth or Sixth Month, it’s got gall.

This is a ballad of Zhu Ci, in the aftermath of his defeat and death in the Sixth Month (of 784).

两头朱童谣
一只箸,
两头朱,
五六月化为胆。
〈此为朱泚谣也,后果于六月兵败而死〉

From Complete Tang Poems chapter 878. Zhu Ci, whose surname 朱 literally means vermilion, was a general, warlord, and self-declared emperor whose armies were defeated in the Sixth Month of 784. This hinges on a pun. The original as in Old Chinese meaning of 胆 is “smooth” (it’s used in that sense in Classic of Rites), but by the Han Dynasty its primary meaning had shifted to the modern one of “gallbladder” and thence “gall” itself (in both the literal and metaphoric senses gall has in English). I’ve rendered the last line both ways, absent a way to reproduce the pun.

---L.

About

Warning: contents contain line-breaks.

As language practice, I like to translate poetry. My current project is Chinese, with practice focused on Tang Dynasty poetry. Previously this was classical Japanese, most recently working through the Kokinshu anthology (archived here). Suggestions, corrections, and questions always welcome.

There's also original pomes in the journal archives.

April 2025

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