詩
經
Shi Jing 
– The Book of Odes
The oldest collection of Chinese poetry, more than three hundred songs, odes and hymns. Tr. Legge (en) and Granet (fr, incomplete).
Shijing IV. 3. (286)
Alas for me, who am [as] a little child,
On whom has devolved the unsettled State !
Solitary am I and full of distress.
Oh ! my great Father,
All thy life long, thou wast filial.
Thou didst think of my great grandfather,
[Seeing him, as it were,] ascending and descending in the court.
I, the little child,
Day and night will be so reverent.
Oh ! ye great kings,
As your successor, I will strive not to forget you.
Legge 286
Shijing IV. 3. (287)
I take counsel at the beginning of my [rule],
How I can follow [the example] of my shrined father.
Ah ! far-reaching [were his plans],
And I am not yet able to carry them out.
However I endeavour to reach to them,
My continuation of them will still be all-deflected.
I am [but as] a little child,
Unequal to the many difficulties of the State.
In his room, [I will look for him] to go up and come down in the court,
To ascend and descend in the house.
Admirable art thou, O great Father,
[Condescend] to preserve and enlighten me.
Legge 287
Shijing IV. 3. (288)
Let me be reverent, let me be reverent, [in attending to my duties] ;
[The way of] Heaven is evident,
And its appointment is not easily [preserved].
Let me not say that It is high aloft above me.
It ascends and descends about our doings ;
It daily inspects us wherever we are.
I am [but as] a little child,
Without intelligence to be reverently [attractive to my duties] ;
But by daily progress and monthly advance,
I will learn to hold fast the gleams [of knowledge], till I arrive at bright intelligence.
Assist me to bear the burden [of my position],
And show me how to display a virtuous conduct.
Legge 288
Shijing IV. 3. (289)
I condemn myself [for the past], and will be on my guard against future calamity.
I will have nothing to do with a wasp,
To seek for myself its painful sting.
At first, indeed, the thing seemed but a wren,
But it took wing and became a [large] bird.
I am unequal to the many difficulties of the kingdom ;
And I am placed in the midst of bitter experiences.
Legge 289
Shijing IV. 3. (290)
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They clear away the grass and the bushes ;
And the ground is laid open by their ploughs.
In thousands of pairs they remove the roots,
Some in the low wet lands, some along the dykes.
There are the master and his eldest son ;
His younger sons, and all their children ;
Their strong helpers, and their hired servants.
How the noise of their eating the viands brought to them resounds !
[The husbands] think lovingly of their wives ;
[The wives] keep close to their husbands.
[Then] with their sharp plough-shares,
They set to work on the south-lying acres.
They sow their different kinds of grain,
Each seed containing in it a germ of life.
In unbroken lines rises the blade,
And well-nourished the stalks grow long.
Luxuriant looks the young grain,
And the weeders go among it in multitudes.
Then come the reapers in crowds,
And the grain is piled up the fields,
Myriads, and hundreds of thousands, and millions [of stacks] ;
For spirits and for sweet spirits,
To offer to our ancestors, male and female,
And to provide for all ceremonies.
Fragrant is their aroma,
Enhancing the glory of the State.
Like pepper is their smell,
To give comfort to the aged.
It is not here only that there is this [abundance] ;
It is not now only that there is such a time : –
From of old it has been thus.
Legge 290
Shijing IV. 3. (291)
Very sharp are the excellent shares,
With which they set to work on the south-lying acres.
They sow their different kinds of grain,
Each seed containing a germ of life.
There are those who come to see them,
With their baskets round and square,
Containing the provision of millet.
With their light splint hats on their heads,
They ply their hoes on the ground,
Clearing away the smart-weed on the dry land and wet.
These weeds being decayed,
The millets grow luxuriantly.
They fall rustling before the reapers.
And [the sheaves] are set up solidly,
High as a wall,
United together like the teeth of a comb ;
And the hundred houses are opened [to receive the grain].
Those hundred houses being full,
The wives and children have a feeling of repose.
[Now] we kill this black-muzzled tawny bull,
With his crooked horns,
To imitate and hand down,
To land down [the observances of] our ancestors.
Legge 291
Shijing IV. 3. (292)
In his silken robes, clear and bright,
With his cap on his head, looking so respectful,
From the hall he goes to the foot of the stairs,
And from the sheep to the oxen.
[He inspects] the tripods, large and small.
The good spirits are mild ;
There is no noise, no insolence : –
An auspice, [all this], of great longevity.
Legge 292
Shijing IV. 3. (293)
Oh ! powerful was the king's army ;
But he nursed it in obedience to circumstances while the time was yet dark.
When the time was clearly bright,
He thereupon donned his grand armour.
We have been favoured to receive,
What the martial king accomplished.
To deal aright with what we have inherited,
We have to be sincere imitators of thy course, [O king].
Legge 293
Shijing IV. 3. (294)
There is peace throughout our myriad regions ;
There has been a succession of plentiful years : –
Heaven does not weary in its favour.
The martial king Wu,
Maintained [the confidence of] his officers,
And employed them all over the kingdom,
So securing the establishment of his Family.
Oh ! glorious was he in the sight of Heaven,
Which kinged him in the room [of Shang].
Legge 294
Shijing IV. 3. (295)
King Wen laboured earnestly ; –
Right is it we should have received [the kingdom].
We will diffuse [his virtue], ever cherishing the thought of him ;
Henceforth we will seek only the settlement [of the kingdom].
It was he through whom came the appointment of Zhou ;
Oh ! let us ever cherish the thought of him.
Legge 295
Shijing IV. 3. (296)
Oh ! great now is Zhou.
We ascend the high hills,
Both those that are long and narrow, and the lofty mountains ;
Yes, and [we travel] along the regulated He,
All under the sky,
Assembling those who now respond to me.
Thus it is that the appointment belongs to Zhou.
Legge 296
The Book of Odes – Shi Jing IV. 3. – Chinese on/off – Français/English
Alias Shijing, Shi Jing, Book of Odes, Book of Songs, Classic of Odes, Classic of
Poetry, Livre des Odes, Canon des Poèmes.
The Book of Odes, The Analects, Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Three-characters book, The Book of Changes, The Way and its Power, 300 Tang Poems, The Art of War, Thirty-Six Strategies
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