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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 4 — The odes of Yong

45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

Shijing I. 4. (54)

I would have galloped my horses and whipt them,
Returning to condole with the marquis of Wei.
I would have urged them all the long way,
Till I arrived at Cao.
A great officer has gone, over the hills and through the rivers ;
But my heart is full of sorrow.

You disapproved of my [proposal],
And I cannot return to [Wei] ;
But I regard you as in the wrong,
And cannot forget my purpose.
You disapproved of my purpose,
But I cannot return across the streams ;
But I regard you as in the wrong,
And cannot shut out my thoughts.

I will ascend that mound with the steep side,
And gather the mother-of-pearl lilies.
I might, as a woman, have many thoughts,
But every one of them was practicable.
The people of Xu blame me,
But they are all childish and hasty [in their conclusions].

I would have gone through the country,
Amidst the wheat so luxuriant.
I would have carried the case before the great State.
On whom should I have relied ? Who would come [to the help of Wei] ?
Ye great officers and gentlemen,
The hundred plans you think of
Are not equal to the course I was going to take.

Legge 54

Shi Jing I. 4. (54) IntroductionTable of content
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The Book of Odes – Shi Jing I. 4. (54) – Chinese off/onFrançais/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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