屯如邅如.乘馬班如.匪寇婚媾.女子貞不字.十年乃字.
Tun 屯: to gather, assemble; to station troops, (to) garrison.
Ru 如: According to 古代漢語虛詞詞典 (p. 458-459) ‘多用于形容詞或副詞之后，也有用于動詞之后的，表示事物或動作的状态.可譯為“….一的樣子”、“….的” ‘ . Used behind a verb it denotes appearance, how something behaves or acts. Similar to today’s ‘…一的樣子’ or ‘….的’. Often translated as ‘…-ing’. Ru after tun means that tun is a verb.
Zhan 邅: haltering, lingering; not able to go forward because of difficulties ahead.
Changma 乘馬: cart drawn by a horse; ride a horse.
Ban 班: same as ban 般, ‘linger, stay’. Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 has ban 般.
Kou 寇: invader, enemy (侵略者；敵人)
Hun 婚: marry
Gou 媾: is also related to marrying, meaning ‘to marry again’, ‘take a second wife’ (重婚，重疊交互為婚姻) with the sole purpose of tying bonds between families (親上加親; 結爲婚姻).
Zi 字: pregnant.
Shinian 十年: ‘ten years’, meaning ‘a long time’ (形容時間長久).
Troops gathering, haltering,
Carts lingering.
It is not an invader who wants to marry (for tying bonds).
Divination for a woman: she is not pregnant.
Only after a long time she will get pregnant.
Very much appreciating these, Harmen!
Quick question: 女子 – woman, or girl? (It seems possible on the face of it that there’s to be no pregnancy for 10 years/ a very long time because she’s too young.)
It can refer to women in general, but indeed also to girls, and to virgins…