University of Virginia Library

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 ?