My honored friends, O do not deem
Your rest which seems secure from ill
Will ever last!
Your duties quietly fulfil,
And hold the upright in esteem,
With friendship fast.
So shall the Spirits hear your cry,
You virtuous make, and good supply,
In measure vast.
My honored friends, O do not deem
Repose that seems secure from ill
Will lasting prove.
Your duties quietly fulfil,
And hold the upright in esteem,
With earnest love.
So shall the Spirits hear your prayer,
And on you happiness confer,
Your hopes above.
BOOK VII
DECADE OF SANG HOO
The Rejoicings of a Bridegroom
With axle creaking, all on fire I went,
To fetch my young and lovely bride.
No thirst or hunger pangs my bosom rent—
I only longed to have her by my
side.
I feast with her, whose virtue fame had
told,
Nor need we friends our rapture to behold.
The long-tailed pheasants surest covert
find,
Amid the forest on the plain.
Here from my virtuous bride, of noble
mind,
And person tall, I wisdom gain.
I praise her while we feast, and to her
say,
“The love I bear you ne’er
will know decay.
“Poor we may be; spirits and viands
fine
My humble means will not afford.
But what we have, we’ll taste and
not repine;
From us will come no grumbling word.
And though to you no virtue I can add,
Yet we will sing and dance, in spirit
glad.
“I oft ascend that lofty ridge with
toil,
And hew large branches from the
oaks;
Then of their leafy glory them I spoil,
And fagots form with vigorous strokes.
Returning tired, your matchless grace
I see,
And my whole soul dissolves in ecstasy.
“To the high hills I looked, and
urged each steed;
The great road next was smooth and
plain.
Up hill, o’er dale, I never slackened
speed;
Like lute-string sounded every
rein.
I knew, my journey ended, I should come
To you, sweet bride, the comfort of my
home.”
Against Listening to Slanderers
Like the blueflies buzzing round,
And on the fences lighting,
Are the sons of slander found,
Who never cease their biting.
O thou happy, courteous king,
To the winds their slanders fling.
Buzzing round the blueflies hear,
About the jujubes flocking!
So the slanderers appear,
Whose calumnies are shocking.
By no law or order bound,
All the kingdom they confound.
How they buzz, those odious flies,
Upon the hazels clust’ring!
And as odious are the lies
Of those slanderers blust’ring.
Hatred stirred between us two
Shows the evil they can do.