Week 6: SAVE

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), Pietá, 1903

An Old Charcoal Seller
Po Chü-i   (772-846)

An old charcoal seller
cuts firewood and sears it to charcoal below South Mountain

his face smeared with dust and ash the color of woodsmoke,
his hair gone grizzled and gray, his ten fingers utter black,

and yet daring such hopes for the profits he’ll take home
once the charcoal’s all sold: warm robes to wear, food to eat.

His clothes are worn so miserably thin, and yet he worries
charcoal’s selling too cheap, so he hopes for colder weather,

then one night an inch of snow falls in the city’s foothills
and at dawn he takes his cart crackling through ruts of ice.

A tired ox and hungry man: the sun is already high when
they pause to rest in marketplace mud outside the south gate

and two riders no one knows appear in a dashing flourish:
one an envoy dressed in yellow, the other a servant in white.

The envoy carries an imperial warrant, and after citing it,
he chases the ox away, turns the cart and takes it off north.

A cart like that easily carries a thousand pounds of charcoal,
but a palace envoy hurries it away without a second thought:

half a length of crimson lace and a few yards of fine damask
draped over the ox’s neck: isn’t that fair enough price?

___

How is the Kathe Kollwitz a balance here? Her painting could be taken first as social commentary. But it also works at a broader level. What sources does she draw on? How much is topical, how much from other modes of understanding? Again, what does she draw? Can we ask the same questions about Po Chü-i?

Here below is the Chinese text, with an accompanying translation. Compare the two versions--see why David Hinton is so highly regarded as a poet in his own right--finding the right way to convey these lines from another language--something we've discussed on several occasions in this semester's class. Go through it line by line--you'll see the difference immediately. That said, it would also be illuminating for those of you who read Chinese to tell us about the original...

「卖炭翁－苦官市也」白居易

卖炭翁，伐薪烧炭南山中。满面尘灰烟火色，

两鬓苍苍十指黑。卖炭得钱何所营，身上衣裳口中食。

可怜身上衣正单，心忧炭贱愿天寒。夜来城上一尺雪，

晓驾炭车辗冰辙。牛困人饥日已高，市南门外泥中歇。

翩翩两骑来是谁，黄衣使者白衫儿。手把文书口称敕，

回车叱牛牵向北。一车炭，千馀斤，官使驱将惜不得。

半匹红纱一丈绫，系向牛头充炭直。

THE CHARCOAL-SELLER 

(A Satire against " Kommandatur ") 

An old charcoal-seller, 

Cutting wood and burning charcoal in the forests of the Southern Mountain. 

His face, stained with dust and ashes, has turned to the colour of smoke. 

The hair on his temples is streaked with gray: his ten fingers are black. 

The money he gets by selling charcoal, how far does it go? 

It is just enough to clothe his limbs and put food in his mouth. 

Although, alas, the coat on his back is a coat without lining, 

He hopes for the coming of cold weather, to send up the price of coal! 

Last night, outside the city, — a whole foot of snow; 

At dawn he drives the charcoal wagon along the frozen ruts. 

Oxen, — weary; man, — hungry: the sun, already high; 

Outside the Gate, to the south of the Market, at last they stop in the mud. 

Suddenly, a pair of prancing horsemen. Who can it be coming? 

A public official in a yellow coat and a boy in a white shirt. 

In their hands they hold a written warrant: on their tongues — the words of an order ; 

They turn back the wagon and curse the oxen, leading them off to the north. 

A whole wagon of charcoal^ 

More than a thousand catties! 

If officials choose to take it away, the woodman may not complain. 

Half a piece of red silk and a single yard of damask, 

The Courtiers have tied to the oxen's collar, as the price of a wagon of coal !