Confucius Poems

The woodmen's blows responsive ring,
As on the trees they fall;
And when the birds their sweet notes sing,
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Ripe, the plums fall from the bough;
Only seven-tenths left there now!
Ye whose hearts on me are set,
Now the time is fortunate!
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All true words fly, as from yon reedy marsh
The crane rings o'er the wild its screaming harsh.
Vainly you try reason in chains to keep;--
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Thin cloth of dolichos supplies the shoes,
In which some have to brave the frost and cold.
A bride, when poor, her tender hands must use,
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The weeds will but the ranker grow,
If fields too large you seek to till.
To try to gain men far away
With grief your toiling heart will fill,
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A few gourd leaves that waved about
Cut down and boiled;--the feast how spare!
But the good host his spirits takes,
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The Master said,
'It is by the Odes that the mind is aroused.'
It is by the Rules of Propriety that the character is
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To govern simply by statute and to maintain order by means of penalties is to
render the people evasive and devoid of a sense of shame.
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Where the grounds are wet and low,
There the trees of goat-peach grow,
With their branches small and smooth,
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Men of superior mind busy themselves first getting at the root of things; when
they succeed, the right course is open to them.
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