{"collection":"cfu","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cfu/bop/bop206.htm","path":"cfu/bop/bop206.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cfu/bop/bop206.htm","text":"The Book of Poetry, tr. by James Legge, [1876]\n2Once the road was clear to Chou,\n O\u2019er it the rank grass grows now.\n On my heart is sorrow's blight;\n Ache my limbs as after fight.\n Through the night, still dressed, I sigh;\n Ere its time, old age comes nigh.\n Homeless thus, I find no rest,\n Head and heart alike distressed.\n3Men with reverence always view\n Trees that round their homesteads grew.\n On their fathers all depend,\n In their mothers have a friend.\n From my father's loins I sprung,\n On my mother's breast I hung;\n Yet did Heaven my being give,\n \u2019Neath a baleful star to live. p. 256\n4Where cicadas\u2019 voices ring,\n Willow trees luxuriant spring.\n Deep the waters of that pool,\n Fringed with reeds and rushes cool!\n But like boat adrift I'm borne,\n Aimless, tossed about, forlorn.\n Sad my heart! I try in vain\n Briefest rest from thought to gain.\n5Mark the stag's reluctant feet\n Slowly from the herd retreat.\n Crows the pheasant at the dawn,\n And his mate is to him drawn.\n Stript of branch and lea, that tree\n Is the image true of me.\n Sad my heart! I'm left alone,\n Unbefriended and unknown.\n6See the hare for mercy crave!\n One steps in its life to save.\n When a corpse unburied lies,\n Some one straight a grave supplies. p. 257\n Callous monarch, all our woes\n Ne\u2019er wake thy compunction's throes.\n Sad my heart beneath thy frown,\n And my tears fall ceaseless down!\n7Slanders vile the king believes;\n Them as pledge cup he receives.\n Truthful judgment he denies,\n And to stifle kindness tries.\n Trees are felled where helps the strain,\n Fagots cleft along the grain.\n Leaves our king the guilty free,\n While he guilt imputes to me.\n8Men will climb the greatest height;\n Deepest springs their search invite.\n O\u2019er his words the king should watch;\n Ears are set each word to catch.\n Leave my dam, ye slanderers base;\n Move not basket from its place.\n Vainly thus, despised, I moan;\n Dark my future, though unknown!","title":"The Book of Poetry: Book V. The Decade of Hsiao Min: III. Hsiao Pien","type":"page"}