Jue Ju

[Tinker]

Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry
Overview of Chinese Poetry with Index

Jue Ju (curtailed or frustrated verse) is one of the oldest of the Chinese patterns and in the 3rd century AD the Jue Ju was very popular. It often carried "suggestively erotic themes". It does not tell a story but attempts to create a mood.  Many of the ancient poems use the natural world to set the tone.

The basic rhythmic unit of Chinese poem is the single character (zi), which is pronounced as one syllable. In English the word represented by the character might be more than one syllable. Originally the Jue Ju was composed in 5 character lines. By the Tang era, 8th century it had evolved to a 7 character pattern and became fundamental to Chinese poetry.

The elements of Jue Ju are:

1. metered, 5 or 7 character or word lines. (lines should be same length)
2. composed of 4 lines.
3. often erotic.
4. compared to Western poetry could be considered terse and compressed.

   秋月 (程颢)
   清溪流过碧山头，空水澄鲜一色秋；
   隔断红尘三十里，白云红叶两悠悠。

   Autumn Moon by Cheng Hao translated by Xiao-zhen aka worm, Nov 6,2009

   Over green hills a limpid brook flows
   Sky mirrored in the water of autumn hue
   Away from the distant earthly world
   Maple leaves and velvet clouds leisurely float
   "The Autumn Moon, a seven-character-'cutshorts' (jue ju), was composed by an ancient Chinese poet Chen Hao (1032--1085), a philosopher of Northern Song Dynasty. No line of the poem touches the autumn moon, but it shines every line." ~~Xiao-zhen aka worm

   pillow woman by judi Van Gorder

   Raven strands of silk tangle
   and spread over her pillow.
   With soft eyes, pleasure waits
   white curves stretch upon futon.

[Tinker]

the sounds of  love words
form pleasure for the brain
write a Chinese Jue ju
to entice and seduce us

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