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A few elegant lines, |
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May be made out to be shell-embroidery. |
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Those slanderers, |
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Have gone to great excess. |
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A few diverging points, |
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May be made out to be the southern Sieve. |
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Those slanderers! |
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Who devised their schemes for them? |
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With babbling mouths you go about, |
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Scheming and wishing to slander others, |
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[But] be careful of your words; -- |
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[People] will [yet] say that you are untruthful. |
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Clever you are, and ever changing. |
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In your schemes and wishes to slander. |
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They receive it [now] indeed, |
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But by and by it will turn to your own hurt. |
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The proud are delighted, |
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And the troubled are in sorrow. |
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O azure Heaven! O azure Heaven! |
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Look on those proud men, |
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Pity those troubled. |
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Those slanderers! |
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Who devised their schemes for them? |
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I would take those slanderers, |
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And throw them to wolves and tigers. |
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If these refused to devour them, |
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I would cast them into the north. |
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If the north refused to receive them, |
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I would throw them into the hands of great [Heaven]. |
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The way through the willow garden, |
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Lies near the acred height. |
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I, the eunuch Meng-zi, |
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Have made this poem. |
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All ye officers, |
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Reverently hearken to it. |