#referenced from the iconic screenshot from catching fire of course | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hunxi-guilai · 4 years

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quick question, whats the text in your mobile header? love your translations and meta!

ah! I presume you mean this text:

These are the first four couplets of 《蝉赋》Chanfu / Cicada Rhapsody, by 曹植 Cao Zhi. Cao Zhi is a pretty cool dude in history and historical fiction; when I mentioned in this post that imperial China had a tried and true tradition of younger siblings devoting themselves to the arts to avoid older sibling suspicion, Cao Zhi was one of the people I was thinking of. His case is less cut-and-dry than Li Yu’s, though, because Cao Zhi did have political ambitions (maybe not for the throne, but at least for service). His older brother 曹丕 Cao Pi was Not Remotely Having Any of That, and routinely forced Cao Zhi down again and again.

There is, however, a kickass (and alas, fictional) story about Cao Zhi in 《三国演义》Sanguoyanyi / The Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Cao Pi, in a thinly veiled attempt to get rid of his brother, commands Cao Zhi, known for his literary talents, to compose a poem in seven steps or die. (you know, the usual sibling tiff)

The directive is that the poem has to be about brotherhood; the catch is that the poem cannot contain either 兄 xiong / elder brother or 弟 di / younger brother in its text.

Before he gets to seven steps, Cao Zhi says:

煮豆持作羹，/ While boiling beans to make stew,

漉菽以为汁。/ filter the beans to make stock.

萁在釜下燃，/ The beanstalks below the cauldron burn,

豆在釜中泣。/ The beans within the cauldron weep.

本自同根生，/ How can it be, though they came from the same root,

相煎何太急？/ that they roast each other so hastily?

Like I said, kickass. ROAST ‘EM CAO ZHI. What an icon.

ANYWAY. Back to my header; this is actually a screenshot I took on... (checks file) February 16th, 2018, when I started watching 《琅琊榜之风起长林》Langyabang zhi fengqichanglin / Nirvana in Fire 2. At least on the version I saw, the screen slowly faded up into this poem and I was immediately like ‘hold the goddamn horses we’re twenty seconds into the first episode and I’m already lost,’ took a screenshot, left it on my desktop to parse later (as you do).

The 《蝉赋》Cicada Rhapsody sings (hah) the praises of the humble cicada; its small joys, its virtuous existence, its purity and simplicity and tolerance for the wrongs the world commits against it. Of course, this is a Metaphor for Cao Zhi, who certainly considers himself to be well-intentioned and genuine in his desire to enter service, but is continually a target of suspicion and fear. This poem, then, becomes Very Thematically Relevant to the plot of LYB2, which I seem to be referencing an awful lot lately.

But anyways! Here we are, swiftly and loosely translated:

唯夫蝉之清素兮，/ As for the the clean purity of the cicada

潜厥类乎太阴。/ long hidden in the dark earth

在盛阳之仲夏兮，/ In the fifth month of high summer

始游豫乎芳林。/ it begins its wanderings in fragrant woods

实澹泊而寡欲兮, / It seeks no wealth; its wants are few

独怡乐而长吟。/ it makes merry with itself, singing all the while

声皦皦而弥厉兮，/ jiao-jiao! it chirps, ever louder and louder

似贞士之介心。/ like the honest heart of a virtuous person.

and so on and so forth.

If we’re being totally honest here? I made this blog on an ill-advised whim and needed something to throw up there, and this screenshot has been sitting on my desktop for going on, uh, two years...

#ask and ye shall receive #lol ‘quick question'#but this was a fun dive!

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