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In the seventh month, the Fire Star passes the meridian; |
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In the 9th month, clothes are given out. |
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In the days of [our] first month, the wind blows cold; |
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In the days of [our] second, the air is cold; -- |
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Without the clothes and garments of hair, |
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How could we get to the end of the year? |
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In the days of [our] third month, they take their ploughs in hand; |
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In the days of [our] fourth, they take their way to the fields. |
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Along with my wife and children, |
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I carry food to them in those south-lying acres. |
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The surveyor of the fields comes, and is glad. |
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In the seventh month, the Fire Star passes the meridian; |
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In the ninth month, clothes are given out. |
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With the spring days the warmth begins, |
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And the oriole utters its song. |
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The young women take their deep baskets, |
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And go along the small paths, |
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Looking for the tender [leaves of the] mulberry trees. |
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As the spring days lengthen out, |
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They gather in crowds the white southernwood. |
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That young lady's heart is wounded with sadness, |
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For she will [soon] be going with one of our princess as his wife. |
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In the seventh month, the Fire Star passes the meridian; |
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In the eighth month are the sedges and reeds. |
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In the silkworm month they strip the mulberry branches of their leaves, |
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And take their axes and hatchets, |
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To lop off those that are distant and high; |
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Only stripping the young trees of their leaves. |
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In the seventh month, the shrike is heard; |
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In the eighth month, they begin their spinning; -- |
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They make dark fabrics and yellow. |
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Our red manufacture is very brilliant, |
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It is for the lower robes of our young princes. |
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In the fourth month, the Small grass is in seed. |
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In the fifth, the cicada gives out its note. |
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In the eighth, they reap. |
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In the tenth, the leaves fall. |
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In the days of [our] first month, they go after badgers, |
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And take foxes and wild cats, |
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To make furs for our young princes. |
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In the days of [our] second month, they have a general hunt, |
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And proceed to keep up the exercises of war. |
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The boars of one year are for themselves; |
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Those of three years are for our prince. |
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In the fifth month, the locust moves its legs; |
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In the sixth month, the spinner sounds its wings. |
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In the seventh month, in the fields; |
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In the eighth month, under the eaves; |
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In the ninth month, about the doors; |
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In the tenth month, the cricket |
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Enters under our beds. |
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Chinks are filled up, and rats are smoked out; |
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The windows that face [the north] are stopped up; |
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And the doors are plastered. |
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' Ah! our wives and children, |
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' Changing the year requires this: |
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Enter here and dwell. ' |
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In the sixth month they eat the sparrow-plums and grapes; |
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In the seventh, they cook the Kui and pulse, |
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In the eighth, they knock down the dates; |
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In the tenth, they reap the rice; |
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And make the spirits for the spring, |
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For the benefit of the bushy eyebrows. |
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In the seventh month, they eat the melons; |
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In the eighth, they cut down the bottle-gourds; |
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In the ninth, they gather the hemp-seed; |
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They gather the sowthistle and make firewood of the Fetid tree; |
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To feed our husbandmen. |
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In the ninth month, they prepare the vegetable gardens for their stacks, |
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And in the tenth they convey the sheaves to them; |
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The millets, both the early sown and the late, |
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With other grain, the hemp, the pulse, and the wheat. |
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' O my husbandmen, |
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Our harvest is all collected. |
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Let us go to the town, and be at work on our houses. |
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In the day time collect the grass, |
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And at night twist it into ropes; |
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Then get up quickly on our roofs; -- |
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We shall have to recommence our sowing. ' |
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In the days of [our] second month, they hew out the ice with harmonious blows; |
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And in those of [our] third month, they convey it to the ice-houses, |
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[Which they open] in those of the fourth, early in the morning, |
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Having offered in sacrifice a lamb with scallions. |
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In the ninth month, it is cold, with frost; |
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In the tenth month, they sweep clean their stack-sites. |
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The two bottles of spirits are enjoyed, |
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And they say, ' Let us kill our lambs and sheep, |
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And go to the hall of our prince, |
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There raise the cup of rhinoceros horn, |
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And wish him long life, -- that he may live for ever. ' |