Ceremony of the Spirit 禮魂

This poem, by Qu Yuan is the 9th of his “Nine Songs.”
成禮兮會鼓 傳芭兮代舞
姱女倡兮容與
春蘭兮秋菊 長無絕兮終古
(缺字, 鼓原用俗字, 右旁為皮)
The end of the ceremony sets the mood for the uniting of the drums,
Passing bananas sets the mood for a period of dancing,
A fine woman sets the mood for easily giving,
The Spring orchid sets the mood for the Autumn chrysanthemum,
The elders, without being separated, set the mood for the end of ancient times.

Even though my translation here is probably full of flaws, it is easy to see that this poem is about movement and separation–big themes that can be seen here in the Bladder chapter. Each new thing prefaces the one before it, though the two are almost ironic in relationship to each other. This is so with the process of the Bladder, in which separation must occur, the beauty of togetherness must end, and in realizing that this separation is necessary, we can understand the looping of time and nature we are a part of. We can let go.

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I'm a Chinese medicine student who uses this blog as a place to store my thoughts and occasionally rant and rave about things I trip over in life.

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