孟郊诗
Poems of Meng Jiao
Index
寄义兴小女子
For Encouraging Right Conduct in Young Women
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江南庄宅浅 所固唯疏篱 小女未解行 酒弟老更痴 |
The Jiangnan estate is very relaxed. An old place with only careless fences. The young girls don't yet know their work. I've been drinking and am growing sillier. |
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家中多吴语 教尔遥可知 山怪夜动门 水妖时弄池 |
They all speak Wu around the house So it's hard to make myself understood. As hill spirits, at night they rattle the gates. As water demons, they play in the pools. |
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所忧痴酒肠 不解委曲辞 渔妾性崛强 耕童手皴厘 |
I worry here, drunk and silly, over My inability to sort out this poem. Concubine fishing, her nature a towering strength. Boy plowing, hands calloused like the Farmer God's. |
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想兹为襁褓 如鸟拾柴枝 我咏元鲁山 胸臆流甘滋 |
I think I've gone back to infancy here, like a Baby bird gathered up with the kindling. I chant of Kongzi's hills in Lu and My feelings sweetly overflow. |
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终当学自乳 起坐常相随 |
In the end, I learn to nurture myself and, Rising respectfully, I follow my own lead. |
-- 孟郊
废话
This is probably about Meng Jiao's official residence in one of his several positions. Possibly the one in Li Yang where he did lots of poetry and no work. It's probably not his old family estate which we've visited before, as they don't speak Wu there near the capital. That said, this is a drunken poem.
Meng Jiao starts out writing about the house girls and their behavior. And then the poem wanders off, drunk and silly, into the weeds. It's hard to tell if he's writing this for someone or if he just found himself too drunk to write anything more focused but still felt like writing.
I'm curious about what "right conduct" for young women would have been, according to Meng Jiao. He seemed to enjoy watching them fish and swim and come in and out the gates at night so much he may have decided their behavior was just fine.