New post on Stories from a Burning House: in which we meet mopey Zen collectives, Daoist murderesses (alleged), bumptious exam candidates, and brassy dames, and a loudmouth gets what's coming to him.

https://www.burninghou.se/p/susu-does-the-dozens

#ChineseLiterature #TangDynasty #ChinesePoetry #Translation #寒山 #魚玄機 #王蘇蘇 #北里志

Friday's book of the day is:
#Chineseliterature #communistliterature #maoist #LiuQing

Saturday's book of the day is:
#Chineseliterature #chineserevolution #China #communist #communistliterature #HaoRan

Yuan poet 張養浩 Zhang Yanghao (1270-1329) with a gut-punch of a sanqu:

Peaks and ridges mass,
Waves and billows rage,
Threading mountain and river: the road to Tong Pass.
Pause
and look west to the capital that was:
Where empire after empire had its day
and palace after palace fell to dust.
Dynasties
rise: the little people suffer.
fall: the little people suffer.

《山坡羊·潼关怀古》

峯巒如聚，波濤如怒，山河表裏潼關路。望西都，意躊躇。
傷心秦漢經行處，宮闕萬間都做了土。興，百姓苦；亡，百姓苦！

#ChineseLiterature #Translation #ThemVicissitudes

It’s Monstrous Menagerie Monday:

In the desolation of the Southwest lives the Lying Beast, which has the body of a rabbit and the face of a man. It is capable of speech, which it uses mostly to deceive, saying east is west or bad is good. Its flesh is delicious, but anyone who eats it will speak lies. Its other name is Bombast.

西南荒中出訛獸，其狀若菟，人面能言，常欺人，言東而西，言惡而善。其肉美，食之，言不真矣。（原註，言食其肉，則其人言不誠。）一之誕。

(Shen-yi jing 神異經 5.3, attributed to Dongfang Shuo)
#ChineseLiterature #Translation

Li Bai -- To Du Fu, from Shaqiu
(written after Li Bai got kicked out of Chang'an)

And how have I been spending my time?
I've been here in Shaqiu, away from everything.
There are old trees by the city wall,
And I hear autumn in their branches night and day.
Shandong wine can't get me drunk.
The local poets leave me cold.
My thoughts of you are like the River Wen,
Surging and churning ever southward.

我來竟何事？高臥沙丘城
城邊有古樹，日夕連秋聲
魯酒不可醉，齊歌空復情
思君若汶水，浩蕩寄南徵

#ChineseLiterature #Translation #TangPoetry

Wang Heqing (13th c.) - “On a Long-Haired Little Dog”

This misbegotten little thing
is nowhere to be found in the 'Shan-Hai jing.'
I pronounce this ball of fur a malevolent sprite —
A dust-mop with a nasty bite.

王和卿 - 長毛小狗

醜如驢，小如豬，
《山海經》檢遍了無尋處。
遍體渾身都是毛，
我道你有似個成精物，
咬人的笤帚。

#ChineseLiterature #Translation #YuanSanqu #Doggerel (sorry) #Poetry #散曲

Yesterday, @chowleen posted a poem by Wu Fen 吳芬 over on That Site (are we still observing the naming taboo?) and invited translations. I came up with a couple -- which do you prefer?

〈過節〉
　　　
不過就是
情人節
我
不過就是

(celebrating)

so what, it's
lover's day
i
don't care so what

or

(celebrating)

no big deal
lovers' day
i
know, big deal

吳芬《把你的心跟肺挖出來帶回鄉下餵狗》
Wu Fen, from "dig out your heart and lungs and take them back to the countryside to feed the dogs"

#ChineseLiterature #Translation #Poetry

I would like to write Tan-chun fanfic! #ReadingTheStone #StoryOfTheStone #ChineseLiterature #红楼梦 @sino_lit @bookstodon

Poor Caltrop!

Resuming my 2nd re-read of the 红楼梦for the new year! #HongLouMeng #StoryOfTheStone #ChineseLiterature #红楼梦 @sino_lit #China #Reading @bookstodon

Alt text: image of page 710 of the 3rd volume of the Penguin Story of the Stone.

Exciting book finds from Archives Books! Two 20th century Chinese novels written in English. Beautiful editions! #Bookshopping #ChineseLiterature @bookstodon @sino_lit

Alt text: front covers of Juniper Loa by Lin Yutang (1964) and Flame from the Rock by Tan Yun (1944)

HS 99, which I like to think of as "former gifted children stfu challenge":

蹭蹬諸貧士， 飢寒成至極。
閑居好作詩， 札札用心力。
賤他言孰采， 勸君休歎息。
題安糊䴵上， 乞狗也不喫。

Broke scholars who can't catch a break,
Hungry and cold as can be,
Using your down-time to versify,
Pouring your hearts into every strip of paper --

Low as you are, who'd listen to your words?
I'm telling you: Quit moaning and groaning.
If you wrote your verses on a bun,
A starving dog would shun it.

#寒山 #HanShan #ChineseLiterature #TangPoetry #Translation

Han Shan 55 is good too:

桃花欲經夏， 風月催不待。
訪覓漢時人， 能無一箇在。
朝朝花遷落， 歲歲人移改。
今日揚塵處， 昔時為大海。

Peach blossoms long to last the summer through,
but wind and moon compel them ceaselessly.
Look for the people of the Han --
there's not a one alive today.
Dawn after dawn the flowers aged and fell;
Year in, year out, the people moved and changed.
There, where your foot kicks up the dust:
That once was boundless sea.

#寒山 #HanShan #ChineseLiterature #TangPoetry #Translation

@sino_lit if people are interested in the 2010 TV adaptation of the 红楼梦 it's all here (with English subtitles) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqn1ctcI7B7FoIi6qYQCTLXiqSS2a1qNU

#CDrama #ChineseLiterature #ChineseHistory

Achtung, Werbung: Heute erscheint die Trisolaris-Gesamtausgabe im Hardcover. Cixin Liu hat dafür ein Vorwort geschrieben und stellt eine interessante Frage:
„Seither treibt mich vor allem eine Frage um: Was genau sieht meine Leserschaft eigentlich in diesem Roman? Ist es die darin beschriebene Realität, die sie fasziniert, oder das, was über die Realität hinausgeht?“
#chineseliterature #cixinliu #scifi
https://diezukunft.de/feature/buch/cixin-liu-zu-einer-anderen-zeit-einem-anderen-universum

Achtung, Werbung: Heute erscheint die Trisolaris-Gesamtausgabe im Hardcover. Cixin Liu hat dafür ein Vorwort geschrieben und stellt eine interessante Frage:
„Seither treibt mich vor allem eine Frage um: Was genau sieht meine Leserschaft eigentlich in diesem Roman? Ist es die darin beschriebene Realität, die sie fasziniert, oder das, was über die Realität hinausgeht?“
#chineseliterature #cixinliu #scifi
https://diezukunft.de/feature/buch/cixin-liu-zu-einer-anderen-zeit-einem-anderen-universum

Stichwort #chinesischeLiteratur – Zitate aus Lu Xuns utopischer Erzählung „Tagebuch eines Verrückten“ (1918) wurden in den letzten Tagen in Beijing auf Parkbänke geklebt. In dieser Erzählung wird China als „eisernes Haus“ ohne Fenster und Türen beschrieben. Die Proteste in #Shanghai #urumqi schlagen Wellen im ganzen Land – und der Begründer der modernen Chin. Literatur und Vorvater der chin. Science-Fiction wird dafür zitiert. Spannend. #Chineseliterature #China

(Night falls. I think it does, anyway? It’s hard to tell time when nothing’s happening. The vast empty cavern starts to get cold, so I warm myself beside some cherished nouns.)

“#Sinology! #Translation! #ChineseLiterature! #17thCenturyVernacularFiction! #豆棚閒話!”

(The silence swallows even the echoes. I shiver and look around me again. There were supposed to be people here!)

Kurze Umfrage für alle Literaturinteressierten hier, sei es Phantastik oder anderes: Was interessiert euch an chinesischer Literatur, bzw. wovon hättet ihr gern mehr in den Buchläden? #ChineseLiterature