"'Fair,
Fair,' Cry the Ospreys."
The following poem is from the Shih Ching. It is the
first poem appearing in Mao's ordering of the Shih Ching,
but is often numbered 87 in English versions of that anthology.Virtually
every Chinese student memorizes this poem, and if you wish to
memorize the opening lines in Chinese, as listed below, you
will certainly impress them if you ever visit that country.
The song is a traditional wedding song.
'Fair,
fair,' cry the ospreys
On
the island in the river.
Lovely
is this noble lady,
Fit
bride for our lord.
In
patches grows the water mallow:
To
left and right one must seek it.
Shy
was this noble lady;
Day
and night he sought her.
Sought
her and could not get her;
Day
and night he grieved.
Long
thoughts, oh, long unhappy thoughts,
Now
on his back, now tossing on to his side.
In
patches grow the water mallow;
To
left and right one must gather it.
Shy
is this noble lady;
With
great zithern and little we hearten her.
Questions:
- What imagery or scenes from biological nature does the poet
juxtapose with a scene from human society or human experience?
- Why might the speaker begin his poem with the image of a
male bird calling to a female bird?
- Why is it significant that the water mallows in the paddy
grow to the left and right, but never directly ahead? (I.e.,
what happens if the man picking the mallows leans too far
to the left or the right?)
- Why is the woman juxtaposed with the water mallow?
- Why is it necessary to hearten the woman with song and music?
How does that connect to the beginning of the poem?
Contrast the first two lines in translation with the way these
lines would be pronounced in Mandarin:
'Fair,
fair,' cry the ospreys
On
the island in the river.
Guán!
Guán! Ju Jiu
Zai
hé zhi zhou.
- [The words are roughly pronounced as follows:]
- Guán="Gwon" (rhymes with Spanish Juan,
but spoken in a high pitch)
- Ju=like the word "Jew"
- Jiu=like the English name "Joe."
- Zai=take the ts- sound from Tse-Tse and stick it in front
of "sigh."
- Hé=like English "huh," but spoken in low
pitch
- Zhi= like English "chew"
- Zhou="Cho," rhymes with English "go."
Notice that in the original, the lines are much
shorter than they are in English, only four syllables long.
Chinese poetry is compact. Also note the onomatopoeia in the
original Mandarin. The words "Guán," when spoken
in the appropriate pitch are reminiscent of birds calling to
each other. In the original Mandarin, the last line contains
an example of anthimeria, the poetic device in which
one takes a part of speech and uses it a different part of speech.
Instead of writing, "With great zithern and little [zithern]
we hearten her," the actual Chinese uses the noun "zithern"
as if it were a verb. I.e., "We zithern her." How
does the act of translation raise special problems for an editor
who wants to convey this sense in English?
