{"collection":"cfu","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cfu/bop/bop029.htm","path":"cfu/bop/bop029.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cfu/bop/bop029.htm","text":"The Book of Poetry, tr. by James Legge, [1876]\n2My mind resembles not a mirror plate,\n \u00a0\u00a0Reflecting all th\u2019 impressions it receives.\n The good I love, the bad regard with hate;\n \u00a0\u00a0I only cherish whom my heart believes.\n \u00a0\u00a0Colleagues I have, but yet my spirit grieves,\n That on their honor I cannot depend.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I speak, but my complaint no influence leaves\n \u00a0\u00a0Upon their hearts; with mine no feelings blend;\n With me in anger they, and fierce disdain contend.\n3My mind is fixed, and cannot, like a stone,\n \u00a0\u00a0Be turned at will indifferently about;\n And what I think, to that, and that alone,\n \u00a0\u00a0I utterance give, alike within, without;\n \u00a0\u00a0Nor can like mat be rolled and carried out.\n With dignity, in presence of them all,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My conduct marked, my goodness who shall scout?\n \u00a0\u00a0My foes I boldly challenge, great and small,\n If there be aught in me they can in question call. p. 25\n4How full of trouble is my anxious heart!\n \u00a0\u00a0With hate the blatant herd of creatures mean\n Ceaseless pursue. Of their attacks the smart\n \u00a0\u00a0Keeps my mind in distress. Their venomed spleen\n \u00a0\u00a0Aye vents itself; and with insulting mien\n They vex my soul; and no one on my side\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A word will speak. Silent, alone, unseen,\n \u00a0\u00a0I think of my sad case; then opening wide\n My eyes, as if from sleep, I beat my breast, sore-tried.\n5Thy disk, O sun, should ever be complete,\n \u00a0\u00a0While thine, O changing moon, doth wax and wane.\n But now our sun hath waned, weak and effete,\n \u00a0\u00a0And moons are ever full. My heart with pain\n \u00a0\u00a0Is firmly bound, and held in sorrow's chain,\n As to the body cleaves an unwashed dress.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Silent I think of my sad case; in vain\n \u00a0\u00a0I try to find relief from my distress.\n Would I had wings to fly where ills no longer press!","title":"The Book of Poetry: Book III. The Odes of P\u2018ei: I. Pai Chou","type":"page"}