Chinese and Arabian Literature - E. Wilson - The Search For Mecca

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THE SHI-KING
Why look in silence down?
Behold those proud men and rebuke
With pity on the sufferers look,
And on the evil frown.
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Those slanderers I would gladly take,
With all who help their schemes to make,
And to the tigers throw.
If wolves and tigers such should spare,
I'd hurl them 'midst the freezing air,
Where the keen north winds blow.
And should the North compassion feel
I'd fling them to great Heaven, to deal
On them its direst woe.
As on the sacred heights you dwell,
My place is in the willow dell.
One is the other near.
Before you, officers, I spread
These lines by me, poor eunuch, made.
Think not Mang-tsze severe.
An Officer Deplores the Misery of the Time
In the fourth month summer shines;
In the sixth the heat declines.
Nature thus grants men relief
Tyranny gives only grief.
Were not my forefathers men?
Can my suffering 'scape their ken?
In the cold of autumn days
Each plant shrivels and decays.
Nature then is hard and stern
Living things sad lessons learn.
Friends dispersed, all order gone,
Place of refuge have I none.
Winter days are wild and fierce;
Rapid gusts each crevice pierce.
Such is my unhappy lot,
Unbefriended and forgot!