תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

2 Ye parents who gave me birth!

Was it to make me suffer this pain?

[Why was this time] not before me?

Or [why was it] not after me?

Their good words are [only] from the mouth;

Their bad words are [only] from the mouth.
The sorrow of my heart becomes greater,
And because of this I incur contempt.

3 My sorrowing heart is very sad;
I think of my unfortunate position.

The innocent people

Will all be reduced to servitude with me.
Alas for us!

From whom shall I henceforth get support?

先。俾

St. 1. By正月all the critics understand | such a time of misery and wickedness. L1.3, 4 the 6th month of Chow, or the 4th month of the are expanded in the‘Complete Digest,'-乃 Hëa dyn., –the 1st month, i.e., of summer, when the yang or masculine energy of nature was 不自我之先不自我之後

supposed to have the field to itself. Hoar-frost

would only have been natural in the first month 而適當此時; so that I was not born of the year, either of Chow or Hea. Ying-tah| earlier or later, but just at this time.’ is quotes a passage from Tso K'ëw-ming, under

s

as if it were

words,' evil words, words of slander. Ll. 5, 6

the 17th year of duke Chaou, where 正月is explained by 從, (from; but we must take it used as here. 訛言讒言,‘calumniou 在‘in'莠言 weedy speeches' 將一大. great 之 is simply an expletive. 京京=大,‘great; Maou makes the characters='chronic.' 小心一 'carefulness,' 'anxiety.' Maou defines both

[blocks in formation]

describe the character of the time, as devoid of all sincerity. Men's words of praise or blame, 愈愈 -'waxes more and more.'

were from the mouth only, not from the heart.

St. 3. 懔懔 expresses the intensity of the grief. 祿=福,‘happiness;' so that 無祿 一不幸,‘not to be fortunate.' In 1.6 we

must take the term differently 幷=俱

'all together,'-himself and the innocent people. servants and slaves.' Criminals

臣僕,一

[ocr errors]

and captives were anciently made such.

[blocks in formation]

I see a crow which will rest,

-But on whose house?

4 Look into the middle of the forest;

There are [only] large faggots and small branches in it.

The people now amidst their perils

Look to Heaven, all dark.

But let its determination be fixed,

And there is none whom it will not overcome.

There is the great God,

Does He hate any one?

5 If one say of a hill that it is low,

There are its ridges, and its large masses.

The false calumnies of the people,

is the final particle. L. 6 is expanded

[blocks in formation]

as in V1.8. The meaning of 1.1.2 is variously

determined. Acc. to the view of the old inter

preters, which I have followed, the forest, with only some faggots and twigs left in it, is em

[blocks in formation]

者: It is only for a time that Heaven is in

different to the affairs of men. In 1. 7, instead

of Heaven, we have the personal God,上帝

'the Supreme Ruler.' The account of those two

names, 天 and上帝, given by Ching E, and accepted by Choo and all subsequent writers, is absurd :- With reference to its form, we speak of heaven; with reference to its lordship and

rule, we speak of God (以其形體謂
之天以其主宰謂之帝

We are as good judges of what is meant by
Heaven, as a name for the Supreme Power. as
Ch'ing was; and however the use of it may
be explained, it certainly carries our thoughts

blematic of the ravages of oppressive govt. in above and beyond the visible sky. In 1.8 ‹ƒ†

the court and kingdom. Choo gives quite a

difft. view:-'In a forest you can easily distin- 維the particle. Wang Yin-che explains

[ocr errors]

guish the large faggots from the small branch-here by :-'who is hated by Him?" es, while Heaven appears unable to discriminate St. 5. Ll. 1,2 contain an instance of an asbetween the good and the bad 夢夢= sertion the evidence of the absurdity of which 不明, without intelligence 克一及, is before everybody's eyes.

[ocr errors]

is to be con

strued, or rather not construed, as a particle

‘to come to' L1. 5, 6 are expanded-及其 Of the three usages assigned to it by Wang 有定則未有不為天所勝 Yin-che, this is one (蓋語助也

[ocr errors][merged small]

天之抗我如不我克

[blocks in formation]

有胡有不不 菀為倫敦敢 我其他有不

克特.蜴。脊蹐。局。

How is it that you do not repress them?

You call those experienced ancients;

You consult the diviner of dreams:

They all say, 'We are wise;

訊句

[ocr errors]

彼故老

誰知烏之雌雄
訊之占夢 具曰予聖

聖。老。

But who can distinguish the male and female crow?'

6 We say of the heavens that they are high,
But I dare not but stoop under them.
We say of the earth that it is thick,
But I dare not but walk daintily on it.
For my freely expressing myself thus,
I have reason, I have good ground.
Alas for the men of this time!
Why are they such cobras and efts?

7 Look at that rugged and stony field;-
Luxuriantly rises in it the springing grain!
[But] Heaven moves and shakes me,
As if it could not overcome me.

=何,−as often. The calumnies which were

abroad were as absurd as the assertion in 1. 1;

and yet the king had not repressed thenin w

St. 6. 局一曲身, 'to bend the body." to walk with short, careful steps. 蹐一小步,

must suppose the question addressed to him. It might seem strange that the writer should say

But he was blind, and led by the blind. 故 老=舊臣,‘old ministers 占夢 is

the name of the office. 具一俱‘all.’They

all make it out to be impossible to answer the

this of himself (號一號呼, ‘to call out,

'speak loudly,') but he had ground for doing so

in the conduct of the royal favourites. and

are explained by道 and 理, ‘right’and

questions put to them by the king.‘In other | reason. 虺一as in V. 5. Williams says of

birds,' says Gow-yang Sëw, you can generally

distinguish the male and female by some dif

ference in their colour, but you cannot do this with a pair of crows.'

蜴‘a kind of spotted lizard or eft.

St. 7. 阪田,‘hillside fields,'ie, rugged

and stony. 菀luxuriant, 特=特生

雨。終裹或厲之心哦得彼 之力。執求

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

其姒 今之力

懷。 之

載。又

乃窘

[ocr errors]

今兹之正

或滅之 赫赫宗

[blocks in formation]

揚。胡

亦不

棄陰

周。寧然結

They sought me [at first] to be a pattern [to them],

[Eagerly] as if they could not get me.

[Now] they regard me with great animosity,

And will not use my strength.

8 My heart with its sorrow

Feels as if it were tied and bound by something.

This government of the present time,

How oppressive it is!

The flames, when they are blazing,

May still perhaps be extinguished;

But the majestic honoured capital of Chow

Is being destroyed by Sze of Paou.

9 This issue is ever my anxious thought.

Moreover, you have the embarrassment of soaking rain.

Your carriage is loaded,

And if you throw away your wheel-aids,

之苗,‘the grain, or grass, springing up | be construed with 正 胡然-as in I.iv.

straight.' Such productive energy was there III.2. Ll. 5, 6,-comp. the Shoo. IV. vii. Pt. i. 12. - see on the Shoo, V. xiv. 21. The lady

in the most unlikely places; how was it that all

宗周

things seemed to be against the writer? - Sze of Paou was the favourite concubine of

動搖 to move and shake.' 克=勝, to

overcome.'

Ll. 5-8 speak of the treatment which the speaker had received at court, or from the king's favourites,-prized at first, and then maltreated

king Yëw. For her sake he degraded his proper

queen; and his besotted attachment to her was

the cause of his own death, and the greatest miseries to the kingdom. Her history is graphi

cally related in the 列國志威滅

St. 9. In this stanza and the next, the king is

introduced under the figure of a waggoner, and

and disowned 求我則一求我以為 法則,-as in the translation. 仇仇 “like so many enemies.’力 as a verb,ing of despair. I translate 1.1 after Yen Ts'an, 力, ‘to use the strength,' standing for ability

[blocks in formation]

warning is addressed to him,-
-as if with a feel-

who gives for it,一我永思其終·窘一

‘to be in distress from.’陰雨, ,–as in I. xiv. IV. 4. in 1.3-'is loaded,' and at the end

彼謔.憂濳魚

酒 又有嘉

無助爾

心雖在踰顧棄子輔。 慘伏于絕爾爾

惨。矣。沼,險僕輔

念亦亦會不員 國孔 孔匪是輸 輸于 之之克不爾爾 殽。 為炤樂意載輻

Your load will be overturned,

And you will be crying, 'O sir, help me!'

10 If you do not throw away your wheel-aids,

Which give assistance to the spokes;

And if you constantly look after the driver,

You will not overturn your load,

And in the end will get over the most difficult places;
But you have not thought of this.

11 The fish are in the pond,

But they cannot enjoy themselves.
Although they dive to the bottom,
They are very clearly seen.

My sorrowing heart is deeply pained,

When I think of the oppression in the kingdom.

12 They have their good spirits,

And their fine viands along with them.

of 1. 5, it=‘the load.’I have translated 輔

ply by wheel-aids.' They appear to have been poles that could be used, on occasion, to prevent

載輸爾載

載。

sim- St. 10.無 may be taken as in the translation, or as 'don't.' ¶ (yun)=—, 'to be of use to. 輻- –as in I.ix. XI.2. 踰 過, ‘to get through, or over'絶-極

the wheels from sliding, or applied to the spokes

to heave the wheel out of a rut. Both Williams

and Medhurst describe them erroneously, the

former calling them the rack or cheeks of a cart,' and the latter, 'the poles of a cart, attached to it on each side, and which may be has here the mean

taken off occasionally.’

'very,' 'exceedingly.'

[ocr errors]

St. 11. The proper place for the fish is in the river or lake. In the clear pond it cannot escape being taken. This is supposed to illustrate the position of men of worth in the exist

ing of ‘to overthrow'將一講,‘to request' ing state of things. 炤易見,‘easily

is equivalent to 'Sir.' In his distress the seen. The two

waggoner would thus address any one who, he thought, would help him.

are mere particles.

St. 12. The first four lines describe the

wealth and jollity of the unworthy favourites of

« הקודםהמשך »