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JT Cohort Internationale's avatar

The Devil is in the details, or is it God, I can’t remember which. Very nice explo.

“For those who care about the details: in one reading the second character of the fourth line is 滑, as it’s written, meaning slippery; in another, it’s an alternate character for 淈, meaning a mess of stuff. The final character of the fifth line, meanwhile, may mean either ford or liquid/melt.)”

Mess of stuff? Like a rocky stream bed? Or a file of rocks at the bottom of a clear conscience?

I see you’ve had your hands full with this one.

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JT Cohort Internationale's avatar

An intriguing poem with universal sentiments.

I stumbled on these lines:

I’ve had to learn that vulgar hearts

Have night ice form, but melt at dawn.

I can only imagine the conundrum faced with the Chinese characters in this line, but can poetic license allow you to smooth the English translation like so?

“I’ve had to learn that vulgar hearts

freeze in the night but melt at dawn.”

This ancient poem brought to mind a more recent song from the golden age of country music, the 1950’s song by Stonewall Jackson, I believe: I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water.

What an old image.

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