Mocking Each Other, Gan Qia and Wang Xianke
Wednesday, 25 October 2023 07:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lnhammerQia:
Wang,
You really need to plan your family’s fields—
For though your face is round like a curled-up otter,
Still you have to pull out both your cheeks.
Xianke:
Gan,
You really need to plan your family’s fortune—
For since your head is never bending down,
How will you ever raise your standing up?
与王仙客互嘲
王，
计尔应姓田。
为你面拨獭，
抽却你两边。——洽
甘，
计尔应姓丹。
为你头不曲，
回脚向上安。——仙客
Another from one of the books of comic poems. TLDR: “Wang, you look like you’re starving.” “Gan, you suck at sucking up.” Fortune is a pure guess on my part: the original is 丹, cinnabar/vermilion, which has connotations of both official advancement (because edicts were written in cinnabar ink) and immortality (because cinnabar was used in elixirs). At least, I think those are the relevant senses here. Maybe?
---L.
Wang,
You really need to plan your family’s fields—
For though your face is round like a curled-up otter,
Still you have to pull out both your cheeks.
Xianke:
Gan,
You really need to plan your family’s fortune—
For since your head is never bending down,
How will you ever raise your standing up?
与王仙客互嘲
王，
计尔应姓田。
为你面拨獭，
抽却你两边。——洽
甘，
计尔应姓丹。
为你头不曲，
回脚向上安。——仙客
Another from one of the books of comic poems. TLDR: “Wang, you look like you’re starving.” “Gan, you suck at sucking up.” Fortune is a pure guess on my part: the original is 丹, cinnabar/vermilion, which has connotations of both official advancement (because edicts were written in cinnabar ink) and immortality (because cinnabar was used in elixirs). At least, I think those are the relevant senses here. Maybe?
---L.