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The angry terrors of Compassionate Heaven, |
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Extend through this lower world; |
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[The king's] counsels and plans are crooked and bad; -- |
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When will he stop [in the course]? |
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Counsels which are good he will not follow, |
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And those which are not good he employs, |
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When I look at his counsels and plans, |
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I am greatly pained. |
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Now they agree, and now they defame one another; -- |
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The case is greatly to be deplored. |
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If a counsel be good, |
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They all are found opposing it. |
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If a counsel be bad, |
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They all are found according with it. |
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When I look at such counsels and plans, |
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What will they come to? |
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Our tortoises are wearied out, |
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And will not tell us anything about the plans. |
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The counsellors are very many, |
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But on that account nothing is accomplished. |
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The speakers fill the court, |
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But who dares to take any responsibility on himself? |
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We are as if we consulted [about a journey] without taking a step in advance, |
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And therefore did not get on on the road. |
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Alas! our formers of plans, |
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Do not take the ancients for their pattern, |
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And do not regulate them by great principles. |
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They only hearken to shallow words, |
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And quarrel about shallow words, |
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They are like one taking counsel with wayfarers about building a house. |
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Which will consequently never come to completion. |
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Although the kingdom be unsettled, |
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There are some who are wise, and others who are not. |
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Although the people may not be numerous, |
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Some have perspicacity, some have counsel, |
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Some have gravity, and some have orderliness. |
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But we are going on like the stream flowing from a spring, |
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And will sink together in a common ruin. |
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They dare not without weapons attack a tiger; |
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They dare not without a boat cross the He. |
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They know one thing, |
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But they only know that one. |
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We should be apprehensive and careful, |
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As if we were on the brink of a deep gulf, |
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As if we were treading on thin ice. |