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With flapping wings the crows, |
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Come back, flying all in a flock. |
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Other people all are happy, |
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And I only am full of misery. |
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What is my offence against Heaven? |
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What is my crime? |
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My heart is sad; -- |
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What is to be done? |
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The way to Zhou should be level and easy, |
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But it is all overgrown with rank grass. |
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My heart is wounded with sorrow, |
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And I think till I feel as if pounded [all over]. |
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I lie down undressed, and sigh continually; |
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Through my grief I am growing old. |
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My heart is sad; -- |
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It puts me in pain like a headache. |
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Even the mulberry trees and the Zi, |
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Must be regarded with reverence: |
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But no one is to be looked up to like a father; |
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No one is to be depended on like a mother. |
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Have I not a connection with the hairs [of my father]? |
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Did I not dwell in the womb [of my mother]? |
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O Heaven who gave me birth! |
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How was it at such an inauspicious time? |
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Luxuriant grow those willows, |
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And the cicadas [on them] go hui-hui. |
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Deep looks the pool, |
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And abundantly grow the rushes and reeds [about it], |
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[But] I am like a boat adrift, -- |
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Where it will go you know not. |
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My heart is sad; -- |
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I have not leisure to lie down [even] undressed. |
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The stag is running away, |
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But his legs move slowly. |
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The pheasant crows in the morning, |
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Seeking his mate. |
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I am like a ruined tree, |
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Stript by disease of all its branches. |
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My heart is sad; -- |
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How is it that no one knows me? |
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Look at the hare seeking protection; -- |
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Some one will step in before and save it. |
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One the road there is a dead man; |
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Some one will bury him. |
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[But] such is the heart of our sovereign, |
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That there is nothing he cannot bear to do. |
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My heart is sad, |
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So that my tears are falling down. |
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Our sovereign believes slanders, |
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As readily as he joins in the pledge cup. |
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Our sovereign is unkind, |
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And does not leisurely examine into things. |
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The tree-fellers follow the lean of the tree; |
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The faggot-cleavers follow the direction of the grain; |
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[But] he lets alone the guilty, |
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And imputes guilt to me. |
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There is nothing higher than a mountain; |
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There is nothing deeper than a [great] spring. |
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Our sovereign should not lightly utter his words, |
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Lest an ear be laid close to the wall. |
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Do not approach my dam; |
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Do not remove my basket. |
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My person is rejected; -- |
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Of what use is it to care for what may come after? |