Sacred Books of the East/Volume 3/The Shih/The Minor Odes of the Kingdom/Decade 8/Ode 5

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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 viii, Ode 5: The Po Hwâ, Stanzas 1 and 2

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Bái Huá (白華) corresponds to "white-flowered" in the first line.

3746771Sacred Books of the East, Vol. III, The Shih King — The Minor Odes of the Kingdom, Decade viii, Ode 5: The Po Hwâ, Stanzas 1 and 2James Legge

The Eighth Decade, or that of Po Hwâ.

Ode 5, Stanzas 1 and 2. The Po Hwâ.

The queen of king Yû complains of being degraded and forsaken.

The fibres from the white-flowered rush
Are bound with the white grass^[1].
This man's sending me away
makes me dwell solitary.

The light and brilliant clouds
Bedew the rush and the grass^[2].
The way of Heaven is hard and difficult^[3];—
This man does not conform (to good principle).

↑ The stalks of the rush were tied with the grass in bundles, in order to be steeped;—an operation which ladies in those days might be supposed to be familiar with. The two lines suggest the idea of the close connexion between the two plants, and the necessariness of the one to the other;—as it should be between husband and wife.
↑ The clouds bestowed their dewy influence on the plants, while her husband neglected the speaker.
↑ 'The way of Heaven' is equivalent to our 'The course of Providence,' The lady's words are, literally, 'The steps of Heaven.' She makes but a feeble wail; but in Chinese opinion discharges thereby, all the better, the duty of a wife.

[1] The stalks of the rush were tied with the grass in bundles, in order to be steeped;—an operation which ladies in those days might be supposed to be familiar with. The two lines suggest the idea of the close connexion between the two plants, and the necessariness of the one to the other;—as it should be between husband and wife.

[2] The clouds bestowed their dewy influence on the plants, while her husband neglected the speaker.

[3] 'The way of Heaven' is equivalent to our 'The course of Providence,' The lady's words are, literally, 'The steps of Heaven.' She makes but a feeble wail; but in Chinese opinion discharges thereby, all the better, the duty of a wife.

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