{"collection":"cfu","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cfu/bop/bop201.htm","path":"cfu/bop/bop201.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cfu/bop/bop201.htm","text":"The Book of Poetry, tr. by James Legge, [1876]\n2O father and mother who bore me, your son,\n \u00a0\u00a0Was it only to suffer such woe?\n Why was I not born ere these evils arrived?\n \u00a0\u00a0Or why came they ere I am laid low?\n I hear their good words, which are but from the lip,\n \u00a0\u00a0And their bad words have no deeper seat.\n So shallow those men! And the more that I grieve,\n \u00a0\u00a0With their fiercer contempt do I meet. p. 240\n3With the pang of great misery wringing my heart,\n \u00a0\u00a0Dwell I thus on this comfortless time;\n For the multitudes all will with me be brought\n \u00a0\u00a0To base servitude, guiltless of crime.\n And alas for us all in positions more high!\n \u00a0\u00a0From what lord shall I now get support?\n No more can I tell than,\u2014see yonder a crow!\n \u00a0\u00a0Can I tell to whose house \u2019twill resort.\n4Where the forest once grew, we look, and behold!!\n \u00a0\u00a0Fagots only and twiglets are left.\n To Heaven \u2019midst their perils, the people all look,\n \u00a0\u00a0And lo! Heaven seems of reason bereft.\n But is Heaven so dark? When its purpose is fixed,\n \u00a0\u00a0To its will opposition is vain.\n And good is the Ruler supreme, the great God!\n \u00a0\u00a0He hates none of the children of men.\n5\u2019Tis only fools say that the mountains are low;\u2014,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u2019Gainst such words each high ridge would protest.\n And as baseless the talk that is uttered by men, p. 241\n \u00a0\u00a0But the king lets it fly unrepressed.\n To ministers old and diviners of dreams\n \u00a0\u00a0For advice he repairs, but they say,\n \"We are wise; but of crows which is female, which male,\n \u00a0\u00a0To pronounce who can tell you the way?\"\n6That the heavens are lofty who is there but knows?\n \u00a0\u00a0Yet beneath them I bow my head low,\n And that thick is the earth who is there but feels?\n \u00a0\u00a0Yet with dainty steps on it I go.\n For thus speaking and acting good reason I have,\n \u00a0\u00a0In the conduct of many around,\n Who originate all those calumnies base,\n \u00a0\u00a0Like the cobra or eft fatal found.\n7Where the fields are rugged and stony, the grain\n \u00a0\u00a0Yet luxuriantly rises and grows.\n Heaven fights against me as if I were its match,\n \u00a0\u00a0Moves and shakes me, and then overthrows. p. 242\n As if I were hidden, they sought me at first,\n \u00a0\u00a0At the court for a pattern to shine.\n \u2019Tis with hatred intense they scowl now on me,\n \u00a0\u00a0And my services curtly decline.\n8With its sorrow my heart is deeply oppressed;\n \u00a0\u00a0\u2019Tis as if with tight string it were bound.\n Nowadays those who rule no kindness display;\n \u00a0\u00a0Fierce oppression prevails all around.\n Blazing flames that spread wide, and terror inspire,\n \u00a0\u00a0May perhaps still be quenched at their height.\n But our city august, where Chou holds its state,\n \u00a0\u00a0Through this vile Sz\u016d of Pao sinks to night.\n9That such issue will come is ever my thought;\n \u00a0\u00a0And moreover, O king, let me say,\n Like a wagoner you, and fast falls the rain!\n \u00a0\u00a0Heavy load suits but ill miry clay.\n Wheel aids you may have, but if these you neglect,\n \u00a0\u00a0And the hands that would help you are spurned,\n You soon will be crying, \"O sir, give me aid,\"\n \u00a0\u00a0When the car of the state is o\u2019erturned. p. 243\n10If your wheel aids you keep, and get them well plied,\n \u00a0\u00a0That their help they shall give to each spoke,\n And keep on the driver a vigilant eye,\n \u00a0\u00a0Then your carriage will travel unbroke.\n Your load will be safe, and your journey will come,\n \u00a0\u00a0Though most rugged and hard, to its end;\n But these things seem trifles, as looked upon now;\n \u00a0\u00a0To the peril you will not attend.\n11Shallow ponds on the fish small pleasure bestow;\n \u00a0\u00a0To the bottom they dive, and there lie.\n But the fisherman sharp them clearly perceives,\n \u00a0\u00a0And a prey to his cunning they die.\n And so, men of worth, in this kingdom oppressed,\n \u00a0\u00a0Little pleasure can ever possess;\n For hatred pursues them, where\u2019er they may hide.\n \u00a0\u00a0How such things fill my heart with distress!\n12Clear sparkle the spirits, set forth at their feasts,\n \u00a0\u00a0And the mats with fine viands are crowned.\n Neighbors there and their kindred in numbers appear,\n \u00a0\u00a0And the halls with their praises resound.\n So is it with those, the unworthy and base;\n \u00a0\u00a0Such reward by their flattery they gain; p. 244\n While here I am left, and in solitude pine,\n \u00a0\u00a0Struggling hard with my grief and my pain.\n13Though mean, they are gifted with houses and lands;\n \u00a0\u00a0Abjects vile, they their salaries draw;\n But the people endure a hard, famished lot,\n \u00a0\u00a0And are dealt with by Heaven's sternest law.\n Rich men may succeed in a time so severe;\n \u00a0\u00a0With their wealth and their stores they can live.\n But alas for the poor, alone, without help!\n \u00a0\u00a0Should the king not deliverance give?","title":"The Book of Poetry: Book IV. The Decade of Ch\u2018i Fu: VIII. Ch\u00eang Y\u00fceh","type":"page"}