The clouds form in dense masses, And the rain comes down slowly. May it first rain on our public fields[1], And then come to our private[1]! Yonder shall be young grain unreaped, And here some bundles ungathered; Yonder shall be handfuls left on the ground, And here ears untouched:—For the benefit of the widow[2].
The distant descendant will come, When their wives and children Are bringing food to those (at work) on the south-lying acres. The surveyor of the fields (also) will come and be glad. They will come and offer pure sacrifices to (the spirits of the four) quarters, With their victims red and black[3], With their preparations of millet:—Thus offering, thus sacrificing, Thus increasing our bright happiness.
The Seventh Decade, or that of Sang Hû.
Ode 1, Stanza 1. The Sang Hû.
The king, entertaining the chief among the feudal princes, expresses his admiration of them, and good wishes for them.
They flit about, the greenbeaks[4], With their
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 These are two famous lines, continually quoted as showing the loyal attachment of the people to their superiors in those ancient times.
- ↑ Compare the legislation of Moses, in connexion with the harvest, for the benefit of the poor, in Deuteronomy xxiv. 19—22.
- ↑ They would not sacrifice to these spirits all at once, or all in one place, but in the several quarters as they went along on their progress through the domain. For each quarter the colour of the victim was different. A red victim was offered to the spirit of the south, and a black to that of the north.
- ↑ The greenbeaks appeared in the second ode of the fifth decade. The bird had many names, and a beautiful plumage,
