"Hedgehog" by Chu Chen Po (ninth century), translated by Kenneth Rexroth

[conuly]

He ambles along like a walking pin cushion,
Stops and curls up like a chestnut burr.
He's not worried because he's so little.
Nobody is going to slap him around.

Link

Comments

[dine]

oh, I do so love this! it's absolutely wonderful

[darkoshi]

and i love your icon!

[dine]

oh, thank you. I've had it ages and cannot remember where I found the image. but I enjoy it a lot

[elainegrey]

And i love Rexroth. Maybe i should read some of his other translations today.

[larryhammer]

Okay, 9th century means he's Tang, which means he should be in the Complete Tang Poems, which means if I can figure out how his name is spelled I should be able to find the original text. Or maybe it'd be better to search CTP for 刺猬, or maybe just 猬 since this is Classical Chinese ... :wanders off muttering:

ETA: Okay, found it, in a book of comic poems, under the title "Song of the Hedgehog" -- only in CTP it's credited to 李贞白, Li Zhenbai. Which is not surprising for Rexroth. At a quick glance, though the poem is at least roughly accurate -- here's a version with meanings when you hover over a character. I'll see if I can sot up a rendering. I'm not the poet Rexroth is, but it'll be fun to compare ...

ETA2: I did Rexroth a wrong -- the author is credited, in different texts, as both 李贞白/Li Zhenbai and 朱贞白/Zhu Zhenbai, the latter of which is rendered as Chu Chenpo in Wade-Giles transcription.

[larryhammer]

Okay, not to hijack your excellent post, but I had enough time during lunch to post my own version.

A nice kickstart to finally getting around to investigating the humorous poems of the Tang Dynasty. Thank you!

[conuly]

In fact, I hoped somebody would come up with a translation I liked slightly more.

[larryhammer]

Heh.

FWIW, I'm not satisfied with my first line -- the rhythm is wonky. Well, that's what revisions are for, fixing things.

[adafrog]

Interesting last line.

[larryhammer]

It's freely rendered but idiomatically accurate.

[cesy]

Aww, lovely!