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The Book of Poetry, tr. by James Legge, [1876], at sacred-texts.com


p. 302

V

The Ch‘ing Ying; metaphorical and allusive. Against listening to slanderers.

1Like the blue flies buzzing round,
  And on the fences lighting,
Are the sons of slander found,
  Who never cease their biting.
O thou happy, courteous king,
To the winds their slanders fling.

2Buzzing round the blue flies hear,
  About the jujubes flocking!
So the slanderers appear,
  Whose calumnies are shocking.
By no law or order bound,
All the kingdom they confound.

3How they buzz, those odious flies,
  Upon the hazels clust’ring!
And as odious are the lies
  Of those slanderers blust’ring.
Hatred stirred between us two
Shows the evil they can do.


Next: VI. Pin Chih Ch‘u Yen