MING DYNASTY 'MOUNTAIN SONGS'
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3) Note the character probably pronounced (S) yi-咦, appearing at the beginning of lines three and four. Here we are fortunate in that Feng Meng-lung gives us a gloss indicating the meaning to be equivalent to (M) yù X, but since (M) yù is used elsewhere in the Shan Ko I interpret this character to mean ‘either ...or.
别人笑我無老婆,
你弗得知我破飯籮淘米外頭多,
好像深山裏野鷄路宿,
老鴉鳥無窠到有窠。
‘Others laugh at me because I have no wife.
You could not know that when I wash rice in my broken strainer much more leaks out than stays inside.
It is like the pheasant in the deep mountains who sleeps anyplace along his path,
Or the crow who has no nest yet can nest anywhere.'
1) Referring to prostitutes by various names of wild birds is common in many dialects. I assume the reference also applies here.
娘又乖,姐又乖,
喫娘提箇石滿房篩
小阿奴奴拚得馱郎上床馱下地,
兩人合着一雙鞋。
‘The mother is clever but the daughter is clever, too.
So when mother took some lime and sifted it all over the floor of my room.
I dared to carry my lover pickaback, into bed and out,
Two people joined together wearing just one pair of shoes.'
1) The character (M) ch'i吃 at the beginning of line two here functions as a passive marker much like (M) pěi 被.
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