Shi Jing – Le Canon des Poèmes

Au printemps quand les jours tiédissent
voici que chante le loriot,
Les filles tenant leur corbeille,
vont le long des petits sentiers,
prendre aux mûriers la feuille tendre.

Au printemps quand les jours s'allongent
on va cueillir l'armoise en bande ;
le cœur des filles est dans l'angoisse :
le temps vient pour elles d'aller avec le jeune seigneur.

Granet XXI.

In the seventh month, the Fire Star passes the meridian ;
In the 9th month, clothes are given out.
In the days of [our] first month, the wind blows cold ;
In the days of [our] second, the air is cold ; –
Without the clothes and garments of hair,
How could we get to the end of the year ?
In the days of [our] third month, they take their ploughs in hand ;
In the days of [our] fourth, they take their way to the fields.
Along with my wife and children,
I carry food to them in those south-lying acres.
The surveyor of the fields comes, and is glad.

In the seventh month, the Fire Star passes the meridian ;
In the ninth month, clothes are given out.
With the spring days the warmth begins,
And the oriole utters its song.
The young women take their deep baskets,
And go along the small paths,
Looking for the tender [leaves of the] mulberry trees.
As the spring days lengthen out,
They gather in crowds the white southernwood.
That young lady's heart is wounded with sadness,
For she will [soon] be going with one of our princess as his wife.

In the seventh month, the Fire Star passes the meridian ;
In the eighth month are the sedges and reeds.
In the silkworm month they strip the mulberry branches of their leaves,
And take their axes and hatchets,
To lop off those that are distant and high ;
Only stripping the young trees of their leaves.
In the seventh month, the shrike is heard ;
In the eighth month, they begin their spinning ; –
They make dark fabrics and yellow.
Our red manufacture is very brilliant,
It is for the lower robes of our young princes.

In the fourth month, the Small grass is in seed.
In the fifth, the cicada gives out its note.
In the eighth, they reap.
In the tenth, the leaves fall.
In the days of [our] first month, they go after badgers,
And take foxes and wild cats,
To make furs for our young princes.
In the days of [our] second month, they have a general hunt,
And proceed to keep up the exercises of war.
The boars of one year are for themselves ;
Those of three years are for our prince.

In the fifth month, the locust moves its legs ;
In the sixth month, the spinner sounds its wings.
In the seventh month, in the fields ;
In the eighth month, under the eaves ;
In the ninth month, about the doors ;
In the tenth month, the cricket
Enters under our beds.
Chinks are filled up, and rats are smoked out ;
The windows that face [the north] are stopped up ;
And the doors are plastered.
' Ah ! our wives and children,
' Changing the year requires this :
Enter here and dwell. '

In the sixth month they eat the sparrow-plums and grapes ;
In the seventh, they cook the Kui and pulse,
In the eighth, they knock down the dates ;
In the tenth, they reap the rice ;
And make the spirits for the spring,
For the benefit of the bushy eyebrows.
In the seventh month, they eat the melons ;
In the eighth, they cut down the bottle-gourds ;
In the ninth, they gather the hemp-seed ;
They gather the sowthistle and make firewood of the Fetid tree ;
To feed our husbandmen.

In the ninth month, they prepare the vegetable gardens for their stacks,
And in the tenth they convey the sheaves to them ;
The millets, both the early sown and the late,
With other grain, the hemp, the pulse, and the wheat.
' O my husbandmen,
Our harvest is all collected.
Let us go to the town, and be at work on our houses.
In the day time collect the grass,
And at night twist it into ropes ;
Then get up quickly on our roofs ; –
We shall have to recommence our sowing. '

In the days of [our] second month, they hew out the ice with harmonious blows ;
And in those of [our] third month, they convey it to the ice-houses,
[Which they open] in those of the fourth, early in the morning,
Having offered in sacrifice a lamb with scallions.
In the ninth month, it is cold, with frost ;
In the tenth month, they sweep clean their stack-sites.
The two bottles of spirits are enjoyed,
And they say, ' Let us kill our lambs and sheep,
And go to the hall of our prince,
There raise the cup of rhinoceros horn,
And wish him long life, – that he may live for ever. '

Legge 154

O owl, O owl,
You have taken my young ones ; –
Do not [also] destroy my nest.
With love and with toil,
I nourished them. – I am to be pitied.

Before the sky was dark with rain,
I gathered the roots of the mulberry tree,
And bound round and round my window and door.
Now ye people below,
Dare any of you despise my house ?

With my claws I tore and held.
Through the rushes which I gathered,
And all the materials I collected,
My mouth was all sore ; –
I said to myself, ' I have not yet got my house complete. '

My wings are all-injured ;
My tail is all-broken ;
My house is in a perilous condition ;
It is tossed about in the wind and rain : –
I can but cry out with this note of alarm.

Legge 155

We went to the hills of the east,
And long were we there without returning,
When we came from the east,
Down came the rain drizzlingly.
When we were in the east, and it was said we should return,
Our hearts were in the west and sad ;
But there were they preparing our clothes for us,
As to serve no more in the ranks with the gags.
Creeping about were the caterpillars,
All over the mulberry grounds ;
And quietly and solitarily did we pass the night,
Under our carriages.

We went to the hills of the east,
And long were we there without returning,
When we came from the east,
Down came the rain drizzlingly.
The fruit of the heavenly gourd,
Would be hanging about our eaves ;
The sowbug would be in our chambers ;
The spiders webs would be in our doors ;
Our paddocks would be deer-fields ;
The fitful light of the glow-worms would be all about.
These thoughts made us apprehensive,
And they occupied our breasts.

We went to the hills of the east,
And long were we there without returning,
On our way back from the east,
Down came the rain drizzlingly.
The cranes were crying on the ant-hills ;
Our wives were sighing in their rooms ;
They had sprinkled and swept, and stuffed up all the crevices.
Suddenly we arrived from the expedition,
And there were the bitter gourds hanging,
From the branches of the chestnut trees.
Since we had seen such a sight,
Three years were now elapsed.

We went to the hills of the east,
And long were we there without returning,
On our way back from the east,
Down came the rain drizzlingly.
The oriole is flying about,
Now here, now there, are its wings.
Those young ladies are going to be married,
With their bay and red horses, flecked with white.
Their mothers have tied their sashes ;
Complete are their equipments.
The new matches are admirable ; –
How can the reunions of the old be expressed ?

Legge 156

We broke our axes,
And we splintered our hatchets ;
But the object of the duke of Zhou, in marching to the east,
Was to put the four States to rights.
His compassion for us people,
Is very great.

We broke our axes,
And we splintered our chisels ;
But the object of the duke of Zhou, in marching to the east,
Was to reform the four States.
His compassion for us people,
Is very admirable.

We broke our axes,
And splintered our clubs.
But the object of the duke of Zhou, in marching to the east,
Was to save the alliance of the four States.
His compassion for us people,
Is very excellent.

Legge 157

Comment faire un manche de hache ?
sans hache, on n'y réussit pas !
Comment faire pour prendre femme ?
sans marieur, on ne peut pas !

Granet LXV.

In hewing [the wood for] an axe-handle, how do you proceed ?
Without [another] axe it cannot be done.
In taking a wife, how do you proceed ?
Without a go-between it cannot be done.

In hewing an axe-handle, in hewing an axe-handle,
The pattern is not far off.
I see the lady,
And forthwith the vessels are arranged in rows.

Legge 158

In the net with its nine bags,
Are rud and bream.
We see this prince,
With his grand-ducal robe and embroidered skirt.

The wild geese fly [only] about the islets.
The duke is returning ; – is it not to his proper place ?
He was stopping with you [and me] but for a couple of nights.

The wild geese fly about the land.
The duke is returning, and will not come back here ?
He was lodging with you [and me] but for a couple of nights.

Legge 159

The wolf springs forward on his dewlap,
Or trips back on his tail.
The duke was humble, and greatly admirable,
Self-composed in his red slippers.

The wolf springs forward on his dewlap,
Or trips back on his tail.
The duke was humble, and greatly admirable,
There is no flaw in his virtuous fame.

Legge 160