O thou happy, courteous king,
To the winds their slanders fling.
Buzzing round the blueflies hear,
About the jujubes flocking!
So the slanderers appear,
Whose calumnies are shocking.
By no law or order bound,
All the kingdom they confound.
How 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.
BOOK VIII
THE DECADE OF TOO JIN SZE
~In Praise of By-gone Simplicity~
In the old capital they stood,
With yellow fox-furs plain,
Their manners all correct and good,
Speech free from vulgar stain.
Could we go back to Chow's old days,
All would look up to them with praise.
In the old capital they wore
_T'ae_ hats and black caps small;
And ladies, who famed surnames bore,
Their own thick hair let fall.
Such simple ways are seen no more,
And the changed manners I deplore.
Ear-rings, made of plainest gold,
In the old days were worn.
Each lady of a noble line
A Yin or Keih seemed born.
Such officers and ladies now
I see not and my sorrows grow.
With graceful sweep their girdles fell,
Then in the days of old.
The ladies' side-hair, with a swell,
Like scorpion's tail, rose bold.
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