詩 經 Shi Jing – The Book of Odes

召旻
旻天疾威、天篤降喪。
瘨我饑饉、民卒流亡。
我居圉卒荒。

天降罪罟、蟊賊內訌、昏椓靡共、
潰潰回遹、實靖夷我邦。

皋皋訿訿、曾不知其玷。
兢兢業業、孔填不寧、我位孔貶。

如彼歲早、草不潰茂。
如彼棲苴。
我相此邦、無不潰止。

維昔之富、不如時、維今之疚、不如茲。
彼疏斯粺、胡不自替、職兄斯引。

池之竭矣、不云自頻。
泉之竭矣、不云自中。
溥斯害矣、職兄斯弘、不災我躬。

昔先王受命、有如召公、日辟國百里。
今也日蹙國百里。
於乎哀哉、維今之人、不尚有舊。

原文 265

Compassionate Heaven is arrayed in angry terrors ;
Heaven is indeed sending down ruin,
Afflicting us with famine,
So that the people are all wandering fugitives ; –
In the settled regions and on the borders all is desolation.

Heaven sends down its net of crime ; –
Devouring insects, who weary and confuse men's minds,
Ignorant, oppressive, neglient,
Breeders of confusion, utterly perverse : –
These are the men employed to tranquilize our country.

Insolent and slanderous, –
[The king] does not know a flaw in them.
We, careful and feeling in peril,
For long in unrest,
Are constantly subjected to degradation.

As in a year of drought,
The grass not attaining to luxuriance ;
As water plants attached to a tree ;
So do I see in this country,
All going to confusion.

The wealth of former days,,
Was not like our present condition.
The distress of the present,
Did not previously reach this degree.
Those are [like] coarse rice, these are [like] fine ; –
Why do you not retire of yourselves,
But prolong my anxious sorrow ?

A pool becomes dry, –
Is it not because no water comes to it from its banks ?
A spring becomes dry, –
Is it not because no water rises in it from itself ?
Great is the injury [all about].
So that my anxious sorrow is increased.
Will not calamity light on my person ?

Formerly when the former kings received their appointment,
There were such ministers as the duke of Zhou,
Who would in a day enlarge the kingdom a hundred Li ;
Now it is contracted in a day a hundred Li.
Oh ! Alas !
Among the men of the present day,
Are there not still some with the old virtue ?

Legge 265