Sacred Books of the East/Volume 3/The Shih/The Minor Odes of the Kingdom/Decade 5/Ode 6

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Sacred Books of the East, Vol. III, The Shih King
translated by James Legge

The Minor Odes of the Kingdom, Decade v, Ode 6: The Hsiang Po, Stanzas 5 and 6

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Xiàng Bó (巷伯) is the author, a title denoting that he was the superintendent of a passage in the palace called Xiàng.

3745551Sacred Books of the East, Vol. III, The Shih King — The Minor Odes of the Kingdom, Decade v, Ode 6: The Hsiang Po, Stanzas 5 and 6James Legge

Ode 6, Stanzas 5 and 6. The Hsiang Po.

A eunuch, himself the victim of slander, complains of his fate, and warns and denounces his enemies; appealing against them, as his last resort, to Heaven.

The proud are delighted,
And the troubled are in sorrow.
O azure Heaven! O azure Heaven!
Look on those proud men,
Pity those who are 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^[1].
If the north refused to receive them,
I would throw them into the hands of great (Heaven)^[2].

↑ 'The north,' i.e. the region where there are the rigours of winter and the barrenness of the desert.
↑ 'Great Heaven;' 'Heaven' has to be supplied here, but there is no doubt as to the propriety of doing so; and, moreover, the peculiar phraseology of the line shows that the poet did not rest in the thought of the material heavens.

[1] 'The north,' i.e. the region where there are the rigours of winter and the barrenness of the desert.

[p361_2-2] 'Great Heaven;' 'Heaven' has to be supplied here, but there is no doubt as to the propriety of doing so; and, moreover, the peculiar phraseology of the line shows that the poet did not rest in the thought of the material heavens.

[1]

[2]