Music: Beside the Water在水一方Sung by Teresa Teng

Crying Ospreys关雎

The Book of Odes诗经 (Shī Jīng) is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poems. It comprises 305 poems, some possibly writ

ten as early as 1000 BC.It is the best source for the daily lives, hopes, complaints and beliefs of ordinary people in the early Zhou period. Over half of the poems are said to have originally been popular songs. They concern basic human problems such as love, marriage, work, and

war.

‘Crying Ospreys’ is the first and the most famous one of the poem collection. It is a love poem, describing a man of the royal family in love with a girl collecting edible water plants ,

and his efforts to court her.The English veresion is translated by

Yang Xianyi and Gladys Tylor Yang

“Guan Guan”, merrily the ospreys cry,On the inlet of the stream.

關 關 雎鳩 ，在 河之 洲  。guān guān jūj iū zài hé zhī zhōu

窈窕淑女， yáo tiǎo shū nǚ

君子好逑。 Jūn zǐ hǎo qiú

Gentle and graceful is the girl,

A fit wife for the gentleman.

参差荇菜，

左右流之。

cēn cī xìng cài

Zuǒ yòu liú zhī

Short and long the floating water plants, Left and right you may pick them.

窈窕淑女， yáo tiǎo shū nǚ

寤寐求之。wù mèi qiú zhī

Gentle and graceful is the girl, Awake he longs for her and in his dreams.

求之不得，寤寐思服。qiú zhī bù dé wù mèi sī fú

When the courtship is failed,Awake he thinks of her and in his dreams.Filled with sorrowful thoughts,He tosses about unable to sleep.

悠哉悠哉，辗转反侧。yōu zāi yōu zāi zhǎn zhuǎn fǎn cè

参差荇菜，左右采之。cēn cī xìnɡ cài zuǒ yòu cǎi zhī

Short and long the floating waterplants,Left and right you may pick them.

窈窕淑女，琴瑟友之。

Gentle and graceful the is the girl, He’d like to wed her the qin and se1 playing.

yáo tiǎo shū nǚ qín sè yǒu zhī

Note 1: Two Chinese traditional missical instruments rather like zither, the fomer has senven strins and the later twenty five strings.

zuǒ yòu mào zhī

參 差 荇  菜 ，cēn cī xìnɡ cài

左 右 芼 之。

Short and long the floating water plants, Left and right you may collect them.

窈窕淑女，钟鼓乐之。 yáo tiǎo shū nǚ zhōnɡ ɡǔ lè zhī

Gentle and graceful is the girl, He’d like to merry her, bell and drums beating.

Gladays Tyler Yang Yang Xianyi 1919~1999 1914~2009

About the translators

Edited by Pei Zhenquan

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