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Shi Jing Introduction Table of content – 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).

Section I — Lessons from the states
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15
Chapter 14 — The odes of Cao

150 151 152 153

Shijing I. 14. (150)

The wings of the ephemera,
Are robes, bright and splendid.
My heart is grieved ; –
Would they but come and abide with me !

The wings of the ephemera,
Are robes, variously adorned.
My heart is grieved ; –
Would they but come and rest with me !

The ephemera bursts from its hole,
With a robe of hemp like snow.
My heart is grieved ; –
Would they but come and lodge with me !

Legge 150

Oh ! les ailes de l'éphémère !
oh ! le beau ! le beau vêtement !
Dans le cœur que j'ai de tristesse !...
près de moi viens-t'en demeurer !

Oh ! les ailes de l'éphémère !
oh ! le bel habit bigarré !
Dans le cœur que j'ai de tristesse !...
près de moi viens te reposer !

Il sort de terre, l'éphémère !
robe en chanvre blanc comme neige !
Dans le cœur que j'ai de tristesse !...
près de moi viens te réjouir !

Granet XXV.

Shijing I. 14. (151)

Those officers of escort,
Have their carriers of lances and halberds.
But these creatures,
With their three hundred red covers for the knees ! –

The pelican is on the dam,
And will not wet his wings !
These creatures,
Are not equal to their dress !

The pelican is on the dam,
And will not wet his beak !
These creatures,
Do not respond to the favour they enjoy.

Extensive and luxuriant is the vegetation,
And up the south hill in the morning rise the vapours.
Tender is she and lovely,
But the young lady is suffering from hunger.

Legge 151

Shijing I. 14. (152)

The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree,
And her young ones are seven.
The virtuous man, the princely one,
Is uniformly correct in his deportment.
He is uniformly correct in his deportment,
His heart is as if it were tied to what is correct.

The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree,
And her young ones are in the plum tree.
The virtuous man, the princely one,
Has his girdle of silk.
His girdle is of silk,
And his cap is of spotted deer-skin.

The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree,
And her young ones are in the jujube tree.
The virtuous man, the princely one,
Has nothing wrong in his deportment.
He has nothing wrong in his deportment,
And thus he rectifies the four quarters of the State.

The turtle dove is in the mulberry tree,
And her young ones are in the hazel tree.
The virtuous man, the princely one,
Rectifies the people of the State.
He rectifies the people of his State : –
May he continue for ten thousand years !

Legge 152

Shijing I. 14. (153)

Cold come the waters down from that spring,
And overflow the bushy wolf's-tail grass,
Ah me ! I awake and sigh,
Thinking of that capital of Zhou.

Cold come the waters down from that spring,
And overflow the bushy southernwood,
Ah me ! I awake and sigh,
Thinking of that capital of Zhou.

Cold come the waters down from that spring,
And overflow the bushy divining plants,
Ah me ! I awake and sigh,
Thinking of that capital-city.

Beautifully grew the fields of young millet,
Enriched by fertilizing rains.
The States had their sovereign,
And there was the chief of Xun to reward their princes.

Legge 153

Shi Jing I. 14. Table of content
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The Book of Odes – Shi Jing I. 14. – Chinese on/offFrançais/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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