{"collection":"cfu","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cfu/bop/bop266.htm","path":"cfu/bop/bop266.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cfu/bop/bop266.htm","text":"The Book of Poetry, tr. by James Legge, [1876]\n2Eager and strong, the war steeds prance;\n \u00a0\u00a0Falcon and other banners fly.\n Bristles the land with spear and lance;\n \u00a0\u00a0Wasted and peeled our regions lie.\n Disorder grows, and peace is fled; .\n \u00a0\u00a0Where is the black-haired race of yore?\n Beneath the sky with ruin red\n \u00a0\u00a0Chou's kingdom sinks to rise no more. p. 397\n3Who can arrest the march of fate?\n \u00a0\u00a0Heaven nurtures not, but glows with ire.\n No town presents a sheltering gate;\n \u00a0\u00a0Where can our hurrying feet retire?\n When good men, sons of peace, bear sway,\n \u00a0\u00a0They smooth and knit the social state.\n They are not here;\u2014who paved the way\n \u00a0\u00a0For those through whom come strife and hate?\n4Sore anguish dwells within my heart;\n \u00a0\u00a0I brood upon the country's woes.\n Why was I born to have my part\n \u00a0\u00a0Now when great Heaven its anger shows?\n Throughout our coasts, from east to west,\n \u00a0\u00a0No quiet resting place is found.\n I wander, desolate, distressed,\n \u00a0\u00a0And troubles rave our borders round.\n5You plan, O king, and caution use?\n \u00a0\u00a0Lo! growing ills, dismembered land! p. 398\n Your great concern should be to choose\n \u00a0\u00a0The best, around your throne to stand.\n Be this your way! What burns and glows,\n \u00a0\u00a0Ere used, you in the water cool.\n How can your methods bring repose?\n \u00a0\u00a0Ruin awaits you, and your rule.\n6One struggles on against the wind,\n \u00a0\u00a0With breathless effort,\u2014all in vain.\n So they who fain would serve thee find\n \u00a0\u00a0A baffling force, and little gain.\n They till the fields who might have shone\n \u00a0\u00a0High in official rank and power;\n For now, ambition's impulse gone,\n \u00a0\u00a0They sow and reap, and seek no more.\n7Heaven thus inflicts death and unrest;\n \u00a0\u00a0And lo! we see a kingless throne!\n And still there comes the insect pest,\n \u00a0\u00a0And farmers\u2019 hopes are overthrown. p. 399\n Woe! woe to our great central land!\n \u00a0\u00a0For all in peril heaves my sigh.\n Bereft of strength, I sadly stand,\n \u00a0\u00a0And silent view the vault on high.\n8See here a ruler, firm and good,\n \u00a0\u00a0Whom chiefs and people all revere!\n He keeps his heart; his plans are shrewd;\n \u00a0\u00a0He seeks for helpers far and near.\n See there one of a different kind,\n \u00a0\u00a0Who thinks none but himself is wise!\n Within his narrow range confined,\n \u00a0\u00a0His actions only cause surprise.\n9Lo! \u2019mongst the trees, the herds of deer\n \u00a0\u00a0In concord roam throughout the wood.\n With us all friends are insincere;\n \u00a0\u00a0None cultivate the faithful mood.\n \"Advance! Retreat!\" thus people say;\n \"There's equal danger either way.\" p. 400\n10Here is a sage! His views and speech\n \u00a0\u00a0Go far beyond the present time.\n There is a fool! With narrow reach,\n \u00a0\u00a0His smallest thoughts he counts sublime.\n All this before I could have told.\n \u00a0\u00a0Oh! why did fear my tongue withhold?\n11The good man see! His way is barred;\n \u00a0\u00a0He pines unused, or dwells unsought.\n See now the man whose heart is hard!\n \u00a0\u00a0He's courted, and to honor brought.\n Such government disorder breeds;\n \u00a0\u00a0The people haste to evil deeds.\n12From the large valleys come the winds;\n \u00a0\u00a0There they collect, and thence they blow.\n And thus the virtuous man one finds\n \u00a0\u00a0Doing what's good;\u2014he must act so.\n But he, whose nature scorns the right,\n \u00a0\u00a0His nature vile, \u2019gainst good will fight.\n13By force of nature blows the wind;\n \u00a0\u00a0So men of greed will strive for pelf.\n Would he but hear, I'd speak my mind;\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0As drunk, I mutter to myself. p. 401\n He will not use the good; and I\n \u00a0\u00a0Deplore his course with moan and sigh.\n14Ah! friends, these lines, I know full well,\n \u00a0\u00a0Will only wake your angry thought;\n But random shot may sometimes tell,\n \u00a0\u00a0And bird on wing be hit and caught.\n Your good, and that alone, I seek,\n \u00a0\u00a0Howe\u2019er your anger you may wreak.\n15Those hypocrites, adepts in lies,\n \u00a0\u00a0Produce the chaos of the land.\n The more one's weak, the more he plies\n \u00a0\u00a0Whatever strength he can command.\n The people hopelessly perverse!\n \u00a0\u00a0\u2019Tis their vile work has wrought this curse.\n16The people show unrest, because\n \u00a0\u00a0Those artful villains on them prey.\n They listen to you with applause;\n \u00a0\u00a0Behind your back what's bad they say.\n Ah! friends, these charges you deny.\n \u00a0\u00a0My song is true! It does not lie.","title":"The Book of Poetry: Book III. Decade of Tang: III. Sang Jou","type":"page"}