Shi Jing – Le Canon des Poèmes

In long trains ever increasing grow the gourds.
When [our] people first sprang,
From the country about the Ju and the Qi,
The ancient duke Tan-fu,
Made for them kiln-like huts and caves,
Ere they had yet any houses.

The ancient duke Tan-fu,
Came in the morning, galloping his horses,
Along the banks of the western rivers,
To the foot of [mount] Qi ;
And there, he and the lady Jiang,
Came, and together looked out for a site on which to settle.

The plain of Zhou looked beautiful and rich,
With its violets and sowthistles [sweet] as dumplings.
There he began with consulting [his followers] ;
There he singed the tortoise-shell, [and divined].
The responses were - there to stay, and then ;
And they proceeded there to build their houses.

He encouraged the people and settled them ;
Here on the left, there on the right.
He divided the ground into larger tracts and smaller portions ;
He dug the ditches ; he defined the acres ;
From the west to the east,
There was nothing which he did not take in hand.

He called his superintendent of works ;
He called his minister of instruction ;
And charged them with the building of the houses.
With the line they made everything straight ;
They bound the frame-boards tight, so that they should rise regularly.
Uprose the ancestral temple in its solemn grandeur.

Crowds brought the earth in baskets
They threw it with shouts into the frames ;
They beat it with responsive blows ;
They pared the walls repeatedly, and they sounded strong.
Five thousand cubits of them arose together,
So that the roll of the great drum did not overpower [the noise of the builders].

They set up the gate of the enceinte ;
And the gate of the enceinte stood high.
They set up the court gate ;
And the court gate stood grand.
They reared the great altar [to the Spirits of the land],
From which all great movements should proceed.

Thus though he could nto prevent the rage [of his foes],
He did not let fall his own fame.
The oaks and the Yu were [gradually] thinned,
And roads for travelling were opened.
The hordes of the Hun disappeared,
Startled and panting.

[The chiefs of] Yu and Rui were brought to an agreement,
By king Wen's stimulating their natural virtue.
Then, I may say, some came to him, previously not knowing him ;
And some, drawn the last by the first ;
And some, drawn by his rapid success ;
Ans some, by his defence [of the weak] from insult.

Legge 237