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Shijing or Shi-Jing translations from the Chinese

The Shijing or Shi-Jing or Shih-Ching (“Book of Songs” or “Book of Odes”) is the oldest Chinese poetry collection, with the poems included believed to date from around 1200 BC to 600 BC. According to tradition the poems were selected and edited by Confucius himself. Since most ancient poetry did not rhyme, these may be the world’s oldest extant rhyming poems.

Shijing Ode #4: “JIU MU”
ancient Chinese rhyming poem circa (1200 BC - 600 BC)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Before the Duke of Zhou

Before the Duke of Zhou

Yu Xin (513-581)
 
 
One dawn I had a home; today it’s gone,
An orchid rooted out and set to burn.
As one would tell a tale of long lost friends
I live my life to watch the world turn.
 
 
Chinese
 
集周公處連句詩
庾信
 
市朝一朝變
蘭艾本同焚
故人相借問
平生如所聞
Pronunciation
 
Jí Zhōu Gōng Chǔ (Lián Jù Shī)
Yŭ Xìn

Cutting Wood

How to cut wood?
It’s hard without an axe.
How to find a wife?
It’s hard without a go-between.
 
Cutting wood… cutting wood…
The rule’s pretty clear:
To find a girl
You need a lot of gifts.
 
 
Translated from an anonymous poem in the Shijing, a classic Chinese poetry anthology written around the 7th-11th centuries BC.