Though the road be near, there will be no arriving without
walking; though the task be small, unless it be undertaken it will
not be completed. If days spent in idleness be many, there will
be no great superiority over others.
[2]
Now, in these hands
[3]
a fine
bow, laminated with horn, covered with sinew, and joined with
glue and lacquer, may be a thing of value [even in a state of] ten
thousand chariots. In those hands
[4]
it is not worth a few
shu.[5]
When the men are the same and their talents, equal, that one is
worth ten thousand of the other is because one devotes his mind
and directs his will [to the task in hand].
[6]
The Ode says,
[7]
In the core of my heart I keep it,
And never will forget it.
