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The wings of the ephemera, |
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Are robes, bright and splendid. |
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My heart is grieved; -- |
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Would they but come and abide with me! |
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The wings of the ephemera, |
|
Are robes, variously adorned. |
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My heart is grieved; -- |
|
Would they but come and rest with me! |
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The ephemera bursts from its hole, |
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With a robe of hemp like snow. |
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My heart is grieved; -- |
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Would they but come and lodge with me! |
|
Those officers of escort, |
|
Have their carriers of lances and halberds. |
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But these creatures, |
|
With their three hundred red covers for the knees! -- |
|
The pelican is on the dam, |
|
And will not wet his wings! |
|
These creatures, |
|
Are not equal to their dress! |
|
The pelican is on the dam, |
|
And will not wet his beak! |
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These creatures, |
|
Do not respond to the favour they enjoy. |
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Extensive and luxuriant is the vegetation, |
|
And up the south hill in the morning rise the vapours. |
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Tender is she and lovely, |
|
But the young lady is suffering from hunger. |
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The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree, |
|
And her young ones are seven. |
|
The virtuous man, the princely one, |
|
Is uniformly correct in his deportment. |
|
He is uniformly correct in his deportment, |
|
His heart is as if it were tied to what is correct. |
|
The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree, |
|
And her young ones are in the plum tree. |
|
The virtuous man, the princely one, |
|
Has his girdle of silk. |
|
His girdle is of silk, |
|
And his cap is of spotted deer-skin. |
|
The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree, |
|
And her young ones are in the jujube tree. |
|
The virtuous man, the princely one, |
|
Has nothing wrong in his deportment. |
|
He has nothing wrong in his deportment, |
|
And thus he rectifies the four quarters of the State. |
|
The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree, |
|
And her young ones are in the hazel tree. |
|
The virtuous man, the princely one, |
|
Rectifies the people of the State. |
|
He rectifies the people of his State: -- |
|
May he continue for ten thousand years! |
|
Cold come the waters down from that spring, |
|
And overflow the bushy wolf's-tail grass, |
|
Ah me! I awake and sigh, |
|
Thinking of that capital of Zhou. |
|
Cold come the waters down from that spring, |
|
And overflow the bushy southernwood, |
|
Ah me! I awake and sigh, |
|
Thinking of that capital of Zhou. |
|
Cold come the waters down from that spring, |
|
And overflow the bushy divining plants, |
|
Ah me! I awake and sigh, |
|
Thinking of that capital-city. |
|
Beautifully grew the fields of young millet, |
|
Enriched by fertilizing rains. |
|
The States had their sovereign, |
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And there was the chief of Xun to reward their princes. |
Published
by The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, © Copyright 2003
by Anne Kinney and the University of Virginia