Shi Jing – Le Canon des Poèmes

A few elegant lines,
May be made out to be shell-embroidery.
Those slanderers,
Have gone to great excess.

A few diverging points,
May be made out to be the southern Sieve.
Those slanderers !
Who devised their schemes for them ?

With babbling mouths you go about,
Scheming and wishing to slander others,
[But] be careful of your words ; –
[People] will [yet] say that you are untruthful.

Clever you are, and ever changing.
In your schemes and wishes to slander.
They receive it [now] indeed,
But by and by it will turn to your own hurt.

The proud are delighted,
And the troubled are in sorrow.
O azure Heaven ! O azure Heaven !
Look on those proud men,
Pity those troubled.

Those slanderers !
Who devised their schemes for them ?
I would take those slanderers,
And throw them to wolves and tigers.
If these refused to devour them,
I would cast them into the north.
If the north refused to receive them,
I would throw them into the hands of great [Heaven].

The way through the willow garden,
Lies near the acred height.
I, the eunuch Meng-zi,
Have made this poem.
All ye officers,
Reverently hearken to it.

Legge 200