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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 II — ¤p ¶® Minor odes of the kingdom
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Chapter 1 — ³À »ï ¤§ ¤° Decade of Lu Ming

161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169

Shijing II. 1. (162)

My four steeds advanced without stopping ;
The way from Zhou was winding and tedious.
Did I not have the wish to return ?
But the king's business was not to be slackly performed ;
And my heart was wounded with sadness.

My four steeds advanced without stopping ;
They panted and snorted, the white steeds black-maned.
Did I not have the wish to return ?
But the king's business was not to be slackly performed ;
And I had not leisure to kneel or to sit.

The Filial doves keep flying about,
Now soaring aloft, and now descending,
Collecting on the bushy oaks ;
But the king's business was not to be slackly performed ;
And I had not leisure to nourish my father.

The Filial doves keep flying about,
Now flying, now stopping,
Collecting on the bushy medlars ;
But the king's business was not to be slackly performed ;
And I had not leisure to nourish my mother.

I yoked my four white steeds, black-maned ;
They hurried away with speed.
[But] did I not wish to return ?
Therefore I make this song,
Announcing my wish to nourish my mother.

Legge 162

Shi Jing II. 1. (162) IntroductionTable of content
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The Book of Odes – Shi Jing II. 1. (162) – 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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