Meaning of 趖？

[OneEye]

My friend asked me to translate this phrase for her, because she has a picture of herself in front of a banner with this written on it that she wants to have on her album cover.

閒趖晚日

I couldn't find a meaning for the second character (趖) in any of the dictionaries I have quick access to (which are only C-E dictionaries), so maybe someone else can help out. Unihan includes it but has no definition.

[Ah-Bin]

It's a Hokkien/Taiwanese character, for a word that doesn;t exist in Mandarin, pronounced sô (the ^ indicates a tone similar to the second tone in Mandarin). It means "to crawl like an insect" and by extension "to amble around slowly"

[anonymoose]

Take a look at this.

[OneEye]

Very helpful, thank you guys.

I also found the phrase here:

趖 走意。花閒詞曰。荳蔲花閒趖晚日。今京師人謂日跌爲晌午趖。从走。坐聲。穌和切。十七部。

My classical Chinese is lousy. At first 「荳蔻花閒趖晚日」 seems like "Nutmeg flowers are peaceful and amble around slowly in the evening." But of course that doesn't make sense. I found 「荳蔻」 can also mean 'virgin,' which makes more sense in that sentence. Am I on the right track?

Edited January 18, 2010 at 01:28 AM by OneEye
fixed formatting

[chrix]

My Classical Chinese dictionary says it refers to 13, 14 year-old "young maidens", also written 豆蔻, often used by poets of the Tang era...

[OneEye]

Okay, that makes sense then, since it looks like the line is from a poem by 歐陽炯, a Five Dynasties poet known for his erotic/love poetry, included in the 花間集 (written 花閒 in the quote above). Here's the whole poem:

南鄉子‧八首

嫩草如煙，石榴花發海南天。日暮江亭春影淥，鴛鴦浴，水遠山長看不足。

畫舸停橈，槿花籬外竹橫橋。水上遊人沙上女，回顧，笑指芭蕉林裡住。

岸遠沙平，日斜歸路晚霞明。孔雀自憐金翠尾，臨水，認得行人驚不起。

洞口誰家，木蘭船繫木蘭花。紅袖女郎相引去，遊南浦，笑倚春風相對語。

二八花鈿，胸前如雪臉如蓮。耳墜金鐶穿瑟瑟，霞衣窄，笑倚江頭招遠客。

路入南中，桄榔葉暗蓼花紅。兩岸人家微雨後，收紅豆，樹底纖纖抬素手。

袖斂鮫綃，採香深洞笑相邀。籐杖枝頭蘆酒滴，鋪葵席，豆蔻花間趖晚日。

翡翠鵁鶄，白蘋香裡小沙汀。島上陰陰秋雨色，蘆花撲，數只漁船何處宿。

I think I'll wait until my Classical Chinese is a bit better before I attempt translating the whole thing.

Thanks very much for the help, everyone.

Edited January 18, 2010 at 03:46 AM by OneEye