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ODE 6.
THE MINOR ODES OF THE KINGDOM.
361
ODE 4, STANZA 1. THE KHÃo YEN.
SOME ONE, SUFFERING FROM THE KING THROUGH SLANDER, APPEALS
TO HEAVEN, AND GOES ON TO DWELL ON THE NATURE AND EVIL OF SLANDER. This piece has been referred to the time of king Lî, B. c. 878 to 828.
O vast and distant Heaven, Who art called our parent, That, without crime or offence, I should suffer from disorders thus great! The terrors of great Heaven are excessive, But indeed I have committed no crime. (The terrors of) great Heaven are very excessive, But indeed I have committed no offence.
ODE 6, STANZAS 5 AND 6. THE HSIANG PO.
A EUNUCH, HIMSELF THE VICTIM OF SLANDER, COMPLAINS OF HIS FATE,
AND WARNS AND DENOUNCES HIS ENEMIES; APPEALING AGAINST THEM, AS HIS LAST RESORT, TO HEAVEN.
The proud are delighted, And the troubled are in sorrow. O azure Heaven! O azure Heaven! Look on those proud men, Pity those who are troubled.
Those slanderers! Who devised their schemes for them? I would take those slanderers, And throw them to wolves and tigers. If these refused to devour them, I would cast them into the north'. If the north refused to receive them, I would throw them into the hands of great (Heaven)?
""The north,' i.e. the region where there are the rigours of winter and the barrenness of the desert.
9 Great Heaven;' Heaven' has to be supplied here, but there
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