萑七公女遲懿 遲发懿有授七 遲求筐。 衣。 春流 火歸表 七月流火 火。 條入R 八 殆春微 載九 桑。月 及邟。日行。 2 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 princes as his wife. 3 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, St. 2. Care of the sillavorm L.3.載一始, ‘to begin: 陽一溫和,‘genial L. 4. The ts'ang-kǎng is, probably, the same as the 'yellow bird'of i. II.;–a kind of oriole. It begins its song contemporaneously with the hatching of the eggs of the silkworm. L.5. I translate The last two lines are variously explained. work. I have adopted the view of Choo which is cer tainly the most poetical, and I believe is correct also. He says, At that time the princes of the State still married ladies of it; and those of noble families, who might be engaged to be married to them, took their share of the labour of feed 女 by ‘young women,' in consequence of its ing the silkworms. Hence at this time, those recurrence in 1.10. L.6. The small paths' are those about the homesteads, around which the mulberry trees were planted;-see Men. I. Pt. i. VII. 24. L. 7.-as in iii. VI. 3, et al. L. 8. Maou explains 遲遲by舒緩 slow and easy.’The meaning is what I have given. L.9. –as in ii.II. Choo says that the leaves of this were used to feed the young worms which were later in being hatched. More correctly, Seu Kwang-k'e (徐光啟) says that the eggs are washed with a decoction from the leaves to assist their hatching. 祁邢一衆 多,‘all;' meaning that all the ladies, of noble families as well as of others, engaged in this of them who were so engaged, thinking of the time when they would be going home with their husbands and leave their parents, felt sad!' Maou explains 1.10 of sorrow from the fatigue of the labour, and 1. 11 of returning home along with the princes who came to see the labour, as the surveyor of the fields had done in st.1. Others take of the daughters of the ruling House. 殆一將然之詞,‘a word indicat ing what will be.' St. 3. Further labour with the silkworms, and the weaving of silk. L.2. Choo observes that 萑葦-蒹葭 in xi. IV. These things are mentioned here, it is said, simply as a note of time. The leaves were made into baskets for collecting the mulberry leaves, and also into the frames on which the silkworms were placed. 裘。取隕蝸 ̧四為玄鳴揚取 二之日其同 猗 彼。八月公載鵙 狐 貍之其。 篇 百穫 裳我! 五 朱 于十月 孔 績 ○七伐 載手 貉月鳴 And take their axes and hatchets, 陽載月遠 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; – Our red manufacture is very brilliant, It is for the lower robes of our young princes. 4 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, To make furs for our young princes. In the days of [our] second month, they have a general hunt, L. 3. No month is specified, as the eggs might the note of the shrike was the signal to set about be hatched, now in one month, now in another, L.4. The foo and the tsëang were both axes, differing in the shape of the hole which received the handle;–in the former it was oval, in the latter, square. L.6. 猗 should be 椅, which the Shwoh-wăn defines as to draw on one side.’It means here, says Choo, to take the spinning. L.8. 精 is the term appropriate to the twisting of hemp. L. 9 describes the dyeing operations on both the woven silk and the cloth. denotes a black colour with a dush of red in it. L. 10. 陽 =明,‘bright. St. 5. Hunting;-to supplement the provision of clothes. L.1. Both Maou and Choo simply say of 婁 that it is the name of a grass." Others describe it as like hemp, with flowers of a yellowish red, and a sharp-pointed leaf. Among other names given to it is that of 細草 (the leaves and preserve the branches' 女桑= 小桑‘small mulberry trees. The Japanese | small grass' In the Japanese plates, it is thepolyplates, however, give here the female mulberry tree. L.7. The keih is the shrike or butcher bird, commonly called 伯勞. As the oriole gave no tice of the time to take the silkworms in hand, so gala Japonica. is said to be used of ‘a plant that seeds without having put forth flowers.' L. 2. 蜩 is the cicada or broad locust. L. 3. The reaping here must be of the earlier crops. 婦鼠八月在月五獻纘 婦子 日爲改歲 此室處 牀尸。凡雞斯 尸。 月在羽動 歲。嗟 紫蟋 七股 入我熏蟀九月六 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. 5 In the fifth month, the locust moves its legs; In the eighth month, under the eaves; Enters under our beds. Chinks are filled up, and rats are smoked out; ‘Ah! our wives and children, ‚—as in vii. XII. L. 4. 隕一落,‘to fall'藦 -as in Ana. IX. xxvi. It appears to be the same with the kwan of ix. VI. 1. L. 6. We often take 狐狸 纘武功 言私其縱 Down to this point the ode tells of the arrangements in Pin to provide a sufficiency of raiment against the cold. St. 5. Further provision made by the people against the cold of winter. Choo supposes that together, as signifying a fox. The characters sze-chung, so-ke, and suh-suh are only different denote different animals, however. The貍 is a sort of wild-cat. Yen Ts'an supposes that the badgers' skins were for the hunters themselves, names for the same insect,-the cricket. But I do not see why they should be thus identified. Sze-chung is the same as chung-sze in i. V. The so-ke appears to be, likewise, a kind of locust, and only the others for the princes. L.8. 其 called 紡績娘 the spinner,' from the sound which it makes with its wings. Ll. 3–5 may be assigned to the cricket. 宇,‘the sides of a roof,' 'the eaves.' L. 8. Maou explains 穹 by 窮, entirely, thoroughly' I prefer Choo's account of the term, as meaning ‘chinks." 窒塞 to shut, or stuff, up.’L. 9. 向 is L.10. 從 -as in ii. XIV. 2. L. 11. 窒塞 犴 denotes a boar three years old, i. e., full-grown. to be understood of windows, or openings in the |