t e t ra s y l l a biC Sh i P oe t ry : The B o ok of P oeT ry 21whose husband has been away serving the state but who has now returned. This
would fit the gathering-plant imagery of lines 1–2 and 5–6, which is often asso-
ciated with male–female relations. The image of the bream with the reddened tail
in line 9, however, is problematic in either reading. Wen Yiduo (1899–1946) has
argued that fish are symbols of lovers in the Book of Poetry. Thus the lover in this
poem would be ardent after such a long absence from his wife. Hunger (line 4),
too, is often equated with sexual desire in these poems. Although there have also
been erotic readings of this poem by modern Western scholars, Wen Yiduo’s in-
terpretation of wang shi as referring metonymically to a member of the royal court
(as a parallel to two other expressions referring to courtiers, zong shi and wang sun)
seems most reasonable. Lines 10–12 would then read:
The royal courtier as if ablaze;
Even though he is as if ablaze,
Father and mother are very near.In support of Wen’s overall reading of the poem, the following roughly contem-
poraneous Egyptian love song (thirteenth or fourteenth century b.C.e.) might be
cited:
Love, how I’d love to slip down to the pond,
bathe with you close by on the bank.
Just for you I’d wear my new Memphis swimsuit,
made of sheer linen, fit for a queen—
Come and see how it looks in the water!
Couldn’t I coax you to wade in with me?
Let the cool creep slowly around us?
Then I’d dive deep down
and come up with you dripping,
Let you fill your eyes
with the little red fish that I’d catch.And I’d say, standing there tall in the shallows:
Look at my fish, love,
how it lies in my hand.
How my fingers caress it,
slip down its sides...
But then I’d say softer,
eyes bright with your seeing:
A gift, love, no words.
Come closer and
look, it’s all me. 4Men are not always portrayed as aggressive, as in “I Beg of You, Zhong Zi,” or
as long-absent courtiers, as in “Ru fen.” Sometimes they can only stand and wait