Fretted waters

[flemmings]

Not exactly the Dec 31 prompt-- Here Lies a Veritable Dragon. Much more, here lies a great sprawling hippo of a fic. Tired of it. Warnings: long, poetry.

Should make a Gouen icon since I have the other three.

'Amid the fretted waters the white rocks stand grandly'
ie 揚之水白石鑿鑿 even though it probably should be blue rocks, given the story.

Comments

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Much love for Shanten-dono and wistful, gossamer-emotion poetry.

[incandescens]

A lovely hippo, a true horse of the river. :)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

No, he's had a child with Goujun's half-sister, the Fifth Princess (if the feminine form helps keep things straight.) The Western Monarch had two children by Gouerh-- Goujun and Chifei the Third Princess. She had the Fifth Princess by a river king.

In Ocean dragon thinking, at least among royals, 'sister' as a concept simply doesn't exist. Goujun is Gouerh's son, period. Chifei is the Western Monarch's 'female child', period. They have no relation to each other. Only someone who can think continentally, like Gouen, will note that the Fifth Princess has a parent in common with Goujun.

Equally, incest happens between members of different generations and progenitor/ child. The concept of sibling incest also doesn't exist. (Obviously.) This is why Goushou could Dance with the Third Princess, his half-sister on his *father's* side, and have a child with her, with no sense of anything wrong at all.

Quite apart from dragons knowing nothing of genetics... (For a parallel, look at Nara period royalty. Half-sibs by the same father aren't really relatives and marry ecah other all the time. Half-sibs by the same mother are full-blood relatives and of course can't *possibly* get married perish the thought.)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

(groans) But thanks.

[unearthly-calm.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading this very much. It's lovely to see another dragon-verse story. (I'm sorry that I don't have anything more intelligent to say.)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Thank you. "It's lovely to see another dragon-verse story" will do just fine.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

In this case, only the title and the poem Tsuuran recites are extant. Book of Songs, somewhere. 'Your well is deep' was a contribution from joasakura.

Otherwise TTBRMC I made up the others. They're /patterned/ after existing poems, in that they follow some of the mirroring techniques of classic poetry where each word of a line contrasts with its partner in the preceding one, but as far as the content goes it's original.

Except the line Months and seasons are the waves upon my ocean, which was meant to echo the first line of Basho's Narrow Roads to the Deep North-- Days and months are travellers of eternity.

And I still don't know if Gouen gets his gold dragon or not. Time will tell.