4.
��92. BEREFT OF THEIR LOVE
���Bereft of their love, Huang and Yin, the royal ladies of old, Ranged the banks of Hsiao and Hsiang, south of Tung- ting. -g>y: They wandered by the fathomless waters of the deep* All the world tells the tale of their misery.
Dark is the day, and dismal the clouds;
Demons howl in the fog and infernal spirits whistle in
the rain. Ah, me! What would it avail me if I dared to speak? High heaven shines not, I fear, on the loyalty of my
heart. Clouds gather clouds, — they would roar aloud in anger. Even Yao and Shun ruling, the scepter would pass to
Yui. A king, deprived of his minister, is a dragon turned
to a fish; A minister usurps power, lo! a mouse is become a tiger.
Yao was imprisoned, they say, and Shun died in the open field.
The Nine Hills of Perplexity stand in a row, one re- sembling another —
How could they find the solitary mound of the Double- pupiled One?
The king's daughters cried where the black clouds lowered;
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