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How vast is God, |
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The ruler of men below! |
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How arrayed in terrors is God, |
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With many things irregular in His ordinations! |
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Heaven gave birth to the multitudes of the people, |
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But the nature it confers is not to be depended on. |
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All are [good] at first, |
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But few prove themselves to be so at the last. |
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King Wen said, 'Alas! |
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Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, |
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That you should have such violently oppressive ministers, |
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That you should have such extortionate exactors, |
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That you should have them in offices, |
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That you should have them in the conduct of affairs! |
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Heaven made them with their insolent dispositions, |
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But it is you who employ them, and gave them strength. ' |
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King Wen said, 'Alas! |
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Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, |
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You ought to employ such as are good, |
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But [you employ instead] violent oppressors, who cause many dissatisfactions. |
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They respond to you with baseless stories, |
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And [thus] robbers and thieves are in your court. |
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Thence come oaths and curses, |
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Without limit, without end. ' |
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King Wen said, 'Alas! |
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Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, |
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You show a strong fierce will in the centre of the kingdom, |
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And consider the contracting of enmities a proof of virtue. |
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All unintelligent are you of your [proper] virtue, |
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And so you have no [good] men behind you, nor by your side. |
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Without any intelligence of your [proper] virtue, |
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You have no [good] intimate adviser nor minister. ' |
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King Wen said, 'Alas! |
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Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, |
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It is not Heaven that flushes your face with spirits, |
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So that you follow what is evil and imitate it. |
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You go wrong in all your conduct; |
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You make no distinction between the light and the darkness; |
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But amid clamour and shouting, |
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You turn the day into night. ' |
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King Wen said, 'Alas! |
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Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, |
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[All around you] is like the noise of cicadas, |
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Or like the bubbling of boiling soup. |
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Affairs, great and small, are approaching to ruin; |
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And still you [and your creatures] go on in this course. |
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Indignation is rife against you here in the Middle kingdom, |
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And extends to the demon regions. ' |
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King Wen said, 'Alas! |
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Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, |
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It is not God that has caused this evil time, |
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But it arises from Yin's not using the old [ways]. |
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Although you have not old experienced men, |
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There are still the ancient statutes and laws. |
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But you will not listen to them, |
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And so your great appointment is being overthrown. ' |
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King Wen said, 'Alas! |
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Alas! you [sovereign of] Yin-shang, |
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People have a saying, |
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'When a tree falls utterly, |
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While its branches and leaves are yet uninjured, |
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It must first have been uprooted. ' |
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The beacon of Yin is not far-distant; -- |
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It is in the age of the [last] sovereign of Xia. ' |